Sleep problems plague about 25 percent of all infants; they are measured by the time it takes the child to settle down, the amount of consecutive sleep hours the child accumulates and the quality of sleep. A disturbed sleep pattern is usually also accompanied by an infant’s excessive crying, which can add a great amount of stress to new parents.
Currently, parents are told that the child will eventually grow out of it and not to be concerned. Sometimes, parents are taught “behavioral modification” techniques, which provide little comfort to both parent and child. These approaches are never the best solutions.
However, there is new hope for parents of babies who simply can’t settle down for sleep. A pilot study conducted by Drs. Joyce Miller and Matts Klemsdal evaluated whether routine chiropractic care had also improved the child’s sleep pattern.
The study, published this year in the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics investigated 116 infants, who were under chiropractic care for various conditions. Of the infants, only 10 percent had initially come to the chiropractor because of sleep disturbances, while the majority of the children received chiropractic care for excessive crying and colic.
Specific, gentle adjustments were applied to misaligned areas of the spine (called vertebral subluxations) over the course of a few visits. The results were astounding: After the 1st visit, almost 40 percent of infants slept deeper. That percentage jumped to more than 60 percent after the 7th visit.
It would appear that Chiropractic care seems not only to help children get a better night’s sleep, it also reduces the stress on new parents. And parental stress, as we all know, has its own health challenges.
If your baby is having difficulty settling down before sleep, it might be worth a trip to your family chiropractor.
