Chiropractic Care and Breastfeeding

We all know that children are supposed to be breastfed. It is recommended for the first six months exclusively and that children should be breastfed along with age acceptable food up to two years of age. However, as most women will attest, breastfeeding is not always such an easy answer. Many things can prevent women from being able to breastfeed a baby, from medications they are on to stress that they are under. Sometimes, children just will not seem to nurse as they should. Such was the case with a four week old infant in 2015.
The child was seemingly unable to latch onto her mother’s left breast, both in the traditional cradle position and any other which was tried. The mother was, understandably, concerned and contacted a lactation specialist. The specialist then suggested chiropractic care for the infant and so the woman brought her baby in to see if it would help.
It was noted that the child had no noticeable abnormalities in her neurological or orthopedic tests. When the mother was able to bring her baby girl in, the chiropractor found that she indeed did have several misalignments. These were found in her sacrum, middle back, neck, and cranium. He also found several tight muscles and muscle groups in the infant’s middle back, left neck, and right jaw joint. Imagine the woman’s surprise when the other doctors had told her that there were no problems with her young baby’s body and alignment.
The chiropractor began an adjustment system which was meant to help the infant with the issues mentioned above. They also used an infant toggle head piece to assist the alignment issue even when the child was not receiving the care. They slowly worked out the issues from the bottom of the infant’s spine to her jaw and it was observed that she not only had better range of motion, but her muscles had loosened.
Once the mother returned home, she began to attempt breastfeeding immediately. Indeed, the infant fed from the left breast and did so uninterrupted for a full half hour. The mother had been scheduled to come in twice a week with the child until the issue was resolved, which is was within a single week.