Patients visit a family chiropractor for a multitude of ailments. Most of these are muscular skeletal in nature.  Chiropractors have the ability to adjust these muscles and joints in a way that relieves pressure and can take away a considerable amount of pain. There are even some patients who make their way to the chiropractor in order to treat conditions like fibromyalgia. One of the groups of patients that have not yet fully taken advantage of chiropractic treatments are children. As parents are beginning to see the benefit of having a family chiropractor treat children, this group is starting to increase.

We also have the ability to work on some conditions that would seem to be outside the wheelhouse of a chiropractor. One of these conditions is persistent and reoccurring ear infections in children. There are more than ten million cases of ear infections every single year in the United States, making it one of the most pervasive health conditions in the country. According to some studies, ear infections account for more than 35% of all pediatric visits. The condition affects 50% of all children with most having some kind of middle ear infection before they are a year and a half old.

Typically ear infections are treated with antibiotics if the infection is bacterial in nature. Unfortunately, ear infections have a tendency to come back year after year and after repeated treatments, with antibiotics you run the risk of a child developing a resistant strain of the infection. Considering that in 20% to 30% of cases, an antibiotic treatment will need to be repeated, many families are looking for alternatives. As a family chiropractor, we may have an alternative solution to continuous antibiotics.

There is now research showing that children, who have received adjustments by a family chiropractor, may be able to build up the immunity they need to fight off ear infections naturally. In one study, nearly 80% of the patients that were treated with repeated spinal adjustments no longer suffered from chronic ear infections for at least 6 months after the initial visit.  As long as they continued to have maintenance visits every four to six weeks they remained in good health. While this is a single study, and there is certainly room for more research, there is a solid chance that these adjustments could, in fact, help children with ear infections.

By focusing on the occiput, also known as the back of the skull, and an atlas, the first vertebra of the neck, we can get the middle ear to drain. When the ear starts to drain, there is less of a chance of fluid building up which is the primary cause of a middle ear infection. The drainage, once mobilized, continues naturally while the child themselves start to build up antibodies to the threatening infection. With a built up immunity, the child’s body will start to fight any impending infections themselves. For many patients, they may go through one more cycle of an infection to be fought with antibiotics and then the natural defenses will do the rest. If you or your child is sick, we recommend scheduling an appointment with our family chiropractor office to determine if we can help you to feel better.