COVER PATIENT CARE Five myths about care for children C Dispelling mistaken ideas people often have about DCs with pint-sized patients throughout life,” notes Jeanne Ohm, CEO of the International Chiropractic Pediatrics Association (ICPA), a non-profit organization in Philadelphia. By the 1980s, many DCs had developed their practices to treat adults specifically. In 1986, Dr. Larry Webster in the U.S. helped re-establish chiropractic care for children as a legitimate area of focus. He started teaching his child-friendly techniques, and he created the ICPA to further help chiropractors treat children. Webster passed away in 1997, but his legacy continues. The ICPA now has more than 4,000 members and hundreds of DCs are studying to become chiropractors with a special focus on kids. by stefan dubowski hiropractors who provide care for children – and families – can attest to the many benefits of a healthy spine to a growing child. However, this relatively new area of focus for chiropractic is not susceptible to many misconceptions, among the The ICPA public and the health-care community. Many of Diplomate the public perceptions about chiropractic care for program children, however, are far from the truth. We ex-plore these misconceptions and spoke to the ex-involves a total perts to get the real facts about this thriving chi-of 400 hours of ropractic focus area. training and education Myth #1 Chiropractic care of children is new. When some individuals first learn that DCs treat children as well as adults, they may get the wrong idea that chiropractic for kids is new – which is to say untested, experimental and dangerous. That isn’t the case. Sure, the modern era of this field dates only as far back as the 1980s. But the fact is, the practice actually has much older and stronger roots. “If you go back to 1910, [founder of chiropractic] D.D. Palmer indicated how im-portant it is to check a child’s spine from birth and STEFAN DUBOWSKI is a freelance writer based in Ottawa. You can reach him at [email protected]. 24 Canadian Chiropractor May 2015 DCs who treat kids often hear questions along these lines: Why in the world would a child need to see a chiropractor? What good does chiroprac-tic do for a toddler, or even a newborn? Chiropractors have a few good answers. “We may see a one-week-old child who is al-ready showing signs of favouring, turning her head to one side versus the other,” says Dr. Judy For-rester, owner of Synergea Family Health Centre, a multidisciplinary clinic in Calgary, Alta. “That may seem minimal… but if we can determine any imbalances or asymmetry with the muscular www.canadianchiropractor.ca Myth #2 Children don’t need chiropractic care.
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor May 2015: Page 24
