Paediatric Chiropractic
You may be wondering why your child would need to see a chiropractor. A lot of kids have spinal issues that result from in utero positioning or birth trauma. That trauma can result in things such as:
- The inability to turn their neck to feed properly
- Difficulty swallowing correctly
- Jaw/Tempero-mandibular dysfunction
- Difficulty in rolling over, crawling, sitting, and standing
- Head/Neck posture control problems with eye tracking
- Lack of coordination during sport
We believe that chiropractic offers a gentle, effective and drug-free approach to children’s healthcare.
Providing a Fun Environment
We know that kids can be easily bored in a waiting room, or may find it overwhelming if there are other people and kids making noise or moving about. With this in mind, we have seating outdoors on the verandah overlooking the gardens for kids with noise, light or movement sensitivities, or who just find it hard to sit still.
We also have a great kid-friendly waiting room with beautiful entertaining books, a kids table, colouring-in area, and educational wooden toys in the treatment rooms. We even have a pinboard for children to display their pictures.
Introducing Our Paediatric Chiropractor
Children are not just ‘little adults’ and care should be provided by practitioners who have extensive knowledge of how little bodies differ from adults.
Dr Matthew Comerford is the only chiropractor in Toowoomba and one of a handful of chiropractors in Australia with university qualifications, specifically in chiropractic for children. Dr Matthew’s qualifications include a Master of Science in Chiropractic (Paediatrics) (University of Wales).
Because of this additional training, children are regularly brought by their parents for examination and care from Toowoomba, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and many communities west of Toowoomba.
Collaborating With Other Healthcare Professionals
On occasion, health issues in children may present that require the input of multiple paediatric health specialists. In these situations, Chiropractor Dr Matthew is happy to work collaboratively with a range of professionals to get the best outcome for your child. These practitioners include paediatricians, neurologists, orthopaedic specialiasts, physiotherapists, audiologists, podiatrists, occupational therapists, behavioural optometrists, and others.
The aim of care is to ensure that your baby or child receives the most comprehensive and best care available, allowing them to be happy, healthy, and reach their full developmental potential.
Initial consultation
We suggest allowing around an hour for your first visit with your child.
This allows enough time for you to fill in the paperwork, for us to do a thorough head-to- toe examination, for us to explain how we may be able to help, and treatment if appropriate.
The initial examination includes weight, height, head size, neonatal reflexes, postural reflexes, neurosensory testing, milestone assessment, spinal and peripheral assessment, and any medical/health screens depending on your child’s history.
Exam findings will be discussed with the parents or caregiver, including the type of treatment required, estimated length of care, home or lifestyle changes (diet, neurosensory exercises, stress management, etc), and expected results at completion.
Treatment will only occur with the full consent of the caregiver. Should you refuse treatment at any stage, then your wishes will be fully respected, and the consult will cease.
The second visit
At the second visit, you will be provided with a written report of findings and some research appropriate to your child’s presenting complaint.
What is children's chiropractic?'
Children can have musculoskeletal problems just like adults.
They may have some similar symptoms to an adult including musculoskeletal pain, altered posture, and altered or guarded movement, inflammation, and muscular weakness.
However, babies can’t tell you exactly what they feel and may cry or scream due to pain when they are in some postures.
An example of this may be fussy breastfeeding due to a neck injury, where they arch their spine or pull off the nipple due to pain in the feeding posture.
Another example may be when they are put to sleep in the cot or car seat and they may cry due to pain from a musculoskeletal cause. In these cases, treatment is aimed at restoring normal movement to the spine and relieving the pain.
As children mature and begin to walk, climb and play sport, they may occasionally have falls or sports or musculoskeletal injuries that respond to chiropractic care.
We are able to provide child-specific exercises to improve movement, strength, balance, and function.
We work with a model similar to Maternal and Child Health Nurses assessing children at different times to ensure they are meeting proper developmental criteria.
This includes height, weight, head size, milestones, and neurological development.
Absolutely not. We use a tonal technique called Neuroimpulse Protocol (NIP) to treat children and babies.
The pressure applied to a joint to make a correction is no heavier than the pressure you would apply to your own eyeball.
Children love being treated and babies often sleep through examination and treatment.
No. You do not need a referral to see a chiropractor.
Chiropractors are primary contact practitioners like your GP.
If your child is covered for chiropractic with your health fund, you may be able to claim some of the cost of your care.
Just like physiotherapy, acupuncture, massage, or even medications for your child from the GP, there may be some material risk.
Any risks will be thoroughly discussed with you so that you can make an informed choice before treatment.
However, Dr Angela Todd (Australian Chiropractor and researcher) recently published a paper on chiropractic safety and adverse events in JMPT as part of her PhD. She looked at all incidences of adverse events in children around the world and found that the risk of an adverse event in a child was ‘exceedingly rare’. 1
In another study, Dr Angela Todd compared the forces used in treatment on children; she stated that the force used in tonal treatment (like NIP), was around 2N of force. This is very low indeed. 2
References:
Todd AJ et al. Adverse events from chiropractic and other manual therapies for infants and children. A review of the literature. J manipulative Physiol Ther. 2015; 38 (9): 699-712
Forces of commonly used chiropractic technique for children: a review of the literature. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2016
Get Started Today
Contact us today to schedule an appointment for children’s care Toowoomba.
If you have any concerns about the safety of chiropractic, we will be happy to provide you with a copy of the research mentioned above.
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