# did chiropractic help your baby sleep better?



## caedmyn (Jan 13, 2006)

My 7 month old DD has decided to wake up at least 4 times a night for no apparent reason (she's only hungry once)...this has been going on for a couple of months and all our efforts to help her sleep better have done nothing. The thought of her waking this frequently until she grows out of it is rather depressing. I've heard that chiropractic helps some babies sleep better, so I thought I'd do a poll and see how helpful it was for others before spending any money on it.


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## babygrant (Mar 10, 2005)

subbing...i want to know too


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## 3for3hb (Jan 13, 2005)

As a chiropractor who specializes in prenatal and pediatric care I feel like I have to say something







:
Chiropractic will help your baby whether it directly affects her sleep or not. Chiropractic is not about relieving symptoms. It is about making sure the body has a properly functioning nervous supply (information to and from the brain). That said, there are lots of symptoms (colic, asthma, etc) that chiro has shown to significantly decrease in frequency or even go away after regular chiropractic care was begun. But it's because regular chiropractic care ensures that the body is communicating effectively among its systems (getting all the messeges from the brain and the body is able to send messeges back to the brain). Thus the body is able to heal itself.
I'm gonna recommend you take her to a chiro who is experienced in dealing with children. A good place to look for one is www.icpa4kids.com. There is alos a ton of chiro and kids related research on the site you can browse through.

You may also want to look at the possibility of her diet affecting her sleep. Dairy, grains of certain sorts, even some fruits may cause sleeplessness. There is a ton of info in the health forum.


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## caedmyn (Jan 13, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *willemsmamma*
As a chiropractor who specializes in prenatal and pediatric care I feel like I have to say something







:
Chiropractic will help your baby whether it directly affects her sleep or not. Chiropractic is not about relieving symptoms. It is about making sure the body has a properly functioning nervous supply (information to and from the brain). That said, there are lots of symptoms (colic, asthma, etc) that chiro has shown to significantly decrease in frequency or even go away after regular chiropractic care was begun. But it's because regular chiropractic care ensures that the body is communicating effectively among its systems (getting all the messeges from the brain and the body is able to send messeges back to the brain). Thus the body is able to heal itself.
I'm gonna recommend you take her to a chiro who is experienced in dealing with children. A good place to look for one is www.icpa4kids.com. There is alos a ton of chiro and kids related research on the site you can browse through.

You may also want to look at the possibility of her diet affecting her sleep. Dairy, grains of certain sorts, even some fruits may cause sleeplessness. There is a ton of info in the health forum.









I'll take a look at the website. As far as foods go, she slept the best when I ate absolutely everything. Now she shows signs of food intolerances and I eat eggs, meat, healthy fats, and veggies (and she started the frequent night-wakings a month before I started this diet, and they've only gotten worse since I've been on it)


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## 3for3hb (Jan 13, 2005)

so she's not sampling solids yet? Long shot I know but maybe it's her way of telling you she wants to start on solids (this from a die hard want to bf exclusively for a year mama who started my ds #1 on solids after 5 months because he would BEG to eat with us).
Check this out:
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedseli...uidelines.html
I don't know if this applies or not.
Could just be a stage thing







:


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## *guest (Oct 7, 2005)

I can't prove that there is a direct correlation, but my almost 8-week-old daughter started sleeping 6-8 hour stretches after we've done three adjustments. We were trying to address some tightness in her neck and jaw from the birth, but maybe she's more comfortable overall and it's translating to sleep as well. At any rate, she is way more mellow than before we started, but at this age it's hard to tell what's what! It certainly can't hurt. We found our chiro at icpa4kids.com, and we love her.


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## chiro_kristin (Dec 31, 2004)

willemsmama is right about chiropractic not being symptomatic care.

That being said, I've found that some of my patients (babies and adults) started sleeping better after starting regular care, and some didn't. I personally have an 11-month-old who doesn't sleep more than two hours at a time at night. What that means is that for some people, there is neurological interference that keeps them from sleeping well. For others, it is something else (food, stress, etc). For adults, depending on their spinal condition, it may take a long time to see results in the sleep department, as it has taken a long time for them to develop that amount of degeneration. For babies, if the sleep issue is solely due to subluxation, it shouldn't take as long, but longer for babies who had in utero constraint issues.

For some babies, waking up often is normal. Like mine!

Regardless, regular chiropractic care is beneficial for all babies. They may not have any symptoms, but they won't grow up to have the health issues that we have as adults.

Good luck, and I second the icpa4kids.com recommendation, and also icapediatrics.com


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## umami_mommy (May 2, 2004)

crainal-sacral massage can help for babies who had traumatic births.

my son had a very gentle birth and his sleep issues seemed normal but he still had some chiropractic care. so who knows? but i do know women who have had tough births say that CS therapy worked wonders.


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## caedmyn (Jan 13, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *willemsmamma*
so she's not sampling solids yet? Long shot I know but maybe it's her way of telling you she wants to start on solids (this from a die hard want to bf exclusively for a year mama who started my ds #1 on solids after 5 months because he would BEG to eat with us).
Check this out:
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedseli...uidelines.html
I don't know if this applies or not.
Could just be a stage thing







:

No solids yet. I do hope she sleeps better once she starts them (probably wishful thinking) but we're not starting them until after Labor Day, because of her food intolerances and because we're visiting DH's family over Labor Day and I think it will be much easier to keep them from feeding her things I don't want her to have if she's not started on solids yet.


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## caedmyn (Jan 13, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *honeybeedreams*
crainal-sacral massage can help for babies who had traumatic births.

my son had a very gentle birth and his sleep issues seemed normal but he still had some chiropractic care. so who knows? but i do know women who have had tough births say that CS therapy worked wonders.

I'm considering cranio-sacral as well, although we had a nice easy homebirth (easy pregnancy too) so I'm not sure if that would help her or not.


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## mkat (Jul 31, 2006)

My 4 month old DS has been having cranio sacral therapy for a couple of months now actually to treat his "flat" head (we want to avoid a helmut). It's working (!) and we've seen some other nice effects... he did have a traumatic birth (was crowning for a long time, had 2 big bumps on the top of his head, all of this contributed to his funky head shape). He's an active, alert and intense little guy, but since we've started the treatment, he seems much more organized... could be developmental, but I'm sure it's a combination of the treatment and his own growth process. He LOVES the chiro who does the treatment, and enjoys his sessions for the most part. I've heard too that CST can address colic, sleeping issues, etc. I can say these issues were pretty minor for us, but I have noticed some improvement since the treatment.


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## chiro_kristin (Dec 31, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *caedmyn*
I'm considering cranio-sacral as well, although we had a nice easy homebirth (easy pregnancy too) so I'm not sure if that would help her or not.

I'm so glad your pregnancy/birth went so beautifully! I do have to mention that birth itself is a traumatic event, although we here try to birth naturally as possible to minimize the trauma.


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## 3for3hb (Jan 13, 2005)




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## caedmyn (Jan 13, 2006)

I wasn't trying to imply that my birth was "easy" (hopefully nobody got that impression)...just that as far as births go it was uncomplicated and not too difficult. I'm not sure birth is ever really easy!


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## chiro_kristin (Dec 31, 2004)

No, caedmyn, I knew what you meant







I just wanted to make sure everybody understands that no matter how perfect a pregnancy and birth is, it still can be traumatic to the nervous system, which is why all babies should be checked for subluxation as soon as possible after being born. In fact, one of the things I offer in my practice to my prenatal patients is to attend the birth or come shortly thereafter if they wish, to check the baby.


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