The timing of this article being published couldn\’t have been better. I had a new mom bring in their daughter with very similar symptoms just last week. I\’ll get to that story in a minute but first lets look at the one in this research paper.
The infant in this study was a 2 month old little girl that had issues with acid reflux since birth. She was spitting up regularly after eating and would be very irritable any time she was lying on her back. This caused her to not sleep for more than 30 minutes to an hour. As you can imagine this was very taxing on the parents as they were not able to sleep either and were having trouble also taking care of their older daughter.
At 2 weeks of age they took their daughter to the pediatrician who prescribed Prilosec for the acid reflux. The parents said the medication only helped slightly and if she didn\’t take it the acid reflux would be even worse than when they started. One of the side effects of Prilosec is constipation and they feel this was why she was not having regular bowel movements and was visible straining and in pain when she did go. The pediatrician then recommended Miralax for the constipation. The parents were not happy with giving their infant more medications and they sought the help of a Chiropractor on advise of the grandmother who was seeing one regularly.
It is important to note here that this infant was prescribed Prilosec for acid reflux however in children younger than 8 their is no clear diagnostic criteria for acid reflux. If they have some symptoms such as vomiting regularly after eating and appearing uncomfortable lying down it gets labeled acid reflux. Prilosec also is not recommended for young children and has been shown to have serious side effects such as system wide bacterial infections, pneumonia, and infections in the digestive system. It also has the common side effect of constipation which this infant was experiencing. The answer for that from the pediatrician was Miralax. However like Prilosec there are no studies on infants or children that show it to be effective. There have been studies done, however, that show it greatly disrupts the normal bacterial balance in the digestive system and leads to symptoms that are similar to inflammatory bowel disease.
When this infant was brought to the Chiropractor she was evaluated for subluxations or misalignments in her spine. She was found to have subluxations in her upper neck, mid back and pelvis. The Chiropractor adjusted these areas using light pressure on the affected areas. She was seen 12 times over the course of 6 weeks. After her first set of adjustments the parents noted that she was more comfortable feeding and not spitting up as often. She was also sleeping up to 6 hours at a time. After the third set of adjustments the parents noted she was now having regular bowel movements and had stopped taking the medications. Long term follow up showed that she remained symptom free.
As I mentioned at the start of this article I recently treated an infant with similar symptoms. This was a 2 week old infant that was spitting up regularly after feeding, having noticeable discomfort when lying on her back and feeding wasn\’t sleeping for more than a hour at a time and didn\’t have regular bowel movements. The evening after her first adjustment she had several bowel movements and then they became more regular over the course of the next few days. After her 2nd and 3rd adjustments she started sleeping for up to 4 hours at a time and was having regular bowel movements. She was also much more comfortable lying down and being held.
This infant was a difficult birth she was not positioned correctly and after 4 hours of trying to deliver naturally they had to preform a cesarean section. This can be very difficult on the baby and could have led to the misalignments in her spine. These misaligments put pressure on the delicate nerves as they exit the spine and control all of the functions in the body. In this case if the nerves that control how the bowel functions and the valve that prevents the acids in the stomach from coming back up into the esophagus are irritated these ares can\’t function properly. Chiropractic adjustment relive this stress to the nervous system and allow it to function properly.
These are the stories that get me up every morning excited to come into the office and help people.
