One of the more common reasons moms bring their kiddos into Tree of Life Chiropractic – Rochester is for breastfeeding and latch struggles. Whether that is difficulty latching or staying latched or even fussiness while latching. Often moms also find issues with painful or shallow latches, their own neck pain, back pain and headaches from being in uncomfortable or forward leaning positions for too long. Thankfully, as pediatric and perinatal chiropractors, we often get great results for these moms and kiddos. Before talking about how chiropractic can help with these struggles, let’s talk about why breastfeeding is so important.
There are three really important aspects of a newborn’s life that can help direct their future health in the optimal direction. These three aspects are eating, sleeping and pooping. When a kiddo is unable to do any or often all of these things properly it can lead to other health conditions and struggles. As pediatric chiropractors it is our goal to help these kiddos thrive with eating, sleeping and pooping as naturally as possible without any additional interventions. When a newborn has a hard time breastfeeding, they are often fussy, struggle with calming down, and sleeping. We also often see a connection with the ability to breastfeed and constipation/gas with these kiddos. In reality, any one of these three aspects has an effect on the other 2. So, if we can master latching and feeding properly, we then move in the right direction to health in all other aspects.
So how does chiropractic care help with breastfeeding and latch? Well first, birth is a stressful event for mom and kiddo. Even the most natural and easy births can put stress on your newborn’s spine and nervous system. The first thing we ever do with any newborn is check and assess their nervous system and upper cervical spine. Almost always we will find stress on the upper cervical spine and nervous system. This stress will affect the newborn’s ability to turn and hold their head in proper positioning to feed comfortably as well as lock their little bodies into a fight or flight sympathetic response. This sympathetic response will not only affect their ability to feed but also relax, settle down, sleep, digest, and poop properly. Once we assess their spine and nervous system, we can then make a specific plan to correct their stress and misalignment gently and specifically and then therefore start functioning the way their bodies were designed. Soon these kiddos are latching, feeding and pooping optimally.
Another reason chiropractic is so beneficial when it comes to breastfeeding is for you moms. First, as we said above, by assessing the nervous system and adjusting the spine accordingly we can relieve neurological tension and bring ease and function into the nervous system. It is just important for moms to take care of their neurological health as it is your kiddos. Secondly, we often find moms struggling with mid to upper back pain, neck pain and headaches when in the season of breastfeeding. So, by helping realign the spine and creating proper movement and ease the structure and surrounding soft tissue we can help not only function better but feel better too.
Pregnancy and birth are amazing! But it's also hard on the body too… We would love to partner with you and your family to help live the lives we were meant to live.
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