Children’s Chiropractic in Townsville
Chiropractic care in growing children can be compared to using a stake to help a sapling tree grow straight and more supported. Similar to how that support helps a tree from the ground up, we do the same with a child’s spine, ensuring their feet and legs are in tip-top health to give them a great base for their posture and gait.
While preventative chiropractic care is always a great idea for children, it’s important to watch for other telltale signs that an adjustment plan may be necessary. If you notice your child is standing with one shoulder considerably lower than the other, see them favouring one leg when they’re standing, or sit in a chair on one leg predominantly, it’s worth a visit to our team here at Chiropractic Care North QLD.
Adjusting for Leg Length Discrepancies
Much like we observe in infants, leg length continues to be something our team will watch in growing children, especially if a child is new to the practice and presents a leg-length discrepancy outside of the infant and toddler ages. We want to bring the leg back into alignment to avoid poor posture and gait, knee hyperextensions, or back, hip, knee, and ankle pain.
If it’s caught early enough—and the child is 11 or younger for girls and 13 or younger for boys—it may be corrected through chiropractic adjustments by about 1 millimetre a month. Measurements are done by X-ray. Care can include adjustments to the lumbar spine and pelvis and wearing a lift in the shoe of the shorter leg if the discrepancy is greater than 12 millimetres.
Adjustments for Pronation
More than 70 percent of the population pronates, while 15 percent are what would be considered textbook normal.
As a child ages and develops, the load on the inside of the knee and on the hip changes greatly. If there’s a leg length inequality on top of pronation issues, that’s hundreds of tons more weight on one knee and one hip over the duration of the year. Chiropractic care may help shift the balance in the body to overcome pronation problems.
Postural Assessments
A postural assessment is something that every parent should do with their child every 12 months. If it doesn’t look great, then we follow it up with imaging.
In working with Queensland X-Ray, we use what’s called an ELS imaging system, which keeps radiation to an absolute minimum. From there, if we do the scan and find leg-length discrepancy or scoliosis, we’ll bring the child into the office and begin an adjustment protocol.
Gentle Enough for all Ages
Chiropractic adjustments and related care here at Chiropractic Care North QLD are gentle for kids of all ages. They can play an important role in ensuring your child’s development is kept on track with what is expected for the stage of life they’re in, and has many benefits outside of leg length, pronation, and posture.
Visit us to learn how chiropractic may help your child. Contact us to make your first appointment today.
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