Pediatric Chiropractor: Growth Spurts And Sports Injuries
If you're raising an active child, growth spurts and sports injuries can be common. Pediatric chiropractors can relieve the pain associated with growth spurts and help your child recover from sports injuries.
Here are some common treatment options offered by pediatric chiropractors.
Growth Adjustments
As your child grows into their adolescent body, they can experience lingering soreness and aches.
- Spinal Alignment: To grow taller, your child's spine needs to lengthen. This lengthening, however, can cause other parts of their body to become misaligned. For instance, many young women experience hip issues when they enter puberty. A pediatric chiropractor can take x-rays to pinpoint alignment issues and manually correct any imbalances they spot.
- Mobility: Another side effect of growth spurts is reduced mobility. Even if your child has always seemed flexible and limber, they might begin to notice that they feel stiffer and less coordinated as they grow. Pediatric chiropractors can improve mobility with several techniques. For instance, they might show your child how to use a stretching rope to complete stretching exercises between visits. These types of exercises are gentle on growing bodies and are the perfect pre-bedtime relaxation activity.
Sporting Solutions
If your child participates in sports, they can be very susceptible to sports injuries during periods of rapid growth.
- Massage: Many pediatric chiropractors staff licensed massage therapists. When working closely with a chiropractor, a massage therapist can deliver the specific treatment your child needs to recover from a sports injury. For instance, if your child suffers from a chronic overuse issue like tendonitis, a massage therapist can break up any scar tissue that might be causing persistent pain.
- Acupuncture: Even though children can be skittish around needles, a pediatric chiropractor can patiently walk your child through the process. This can involve explaining how acupuncture works and why it's also painless. Once your child trusts their pediatric chiropractor, they can receive acupuncture and dry needling treatments to reduce inflammation.
- Cryotherapy: Icing an injury not only helps to relieve pain, but it also stimulates blood flow. Pediatric chiropractors can use a variety of cryotherapy treatments for sports injuries. For instance, your child might wrap a sprained ankle in a compression-cooled sleeve, or spend a few minutes in a cryotherapy chamber.
- Reflexology: Your body is intricately connected. For instance, the pain your child might be experiencing in their neck might be connected to issues in their foot. A pediatric chiropractor uses reflexology to help your child heal from the root causes of a sports injury.