Healthy Spines. Healthy Kids: Pediatric Chiropractic for Optimal Development

Gut-Brain-Immune Connection in Children 0:00

Everybody, Dr. Rob Silverman here, Proven Health Alternatives. I've got a dynamic speaker for you today. We've been doing this 48 hour course together. Dr Elena, and I said her name right. There's a little backstory to that and inside job, but we're going to pass. She is without question a budding star in chiropractic and chriopractic pediatrics. So this topic has never been covered. Get ready, pick your pen up. there's going be some knowledge bombs dropped. Doctor Elena. Good morning, good afternoon, Good day, Thanks Dr.

Rob, super excited to chat with you. I can see that. So let's dig in. In children, the gut, brain and immune system are not independent entities. They are developing simultaneously and in constant communication. The nervous system coordinates digestion, immune surveillance and stress adaptation. the Gut Microbiome educates the immune systems and modulates neural development. And lastly, the immune system shapes brain signaling through cytokines, vagal tone, and metabolic byproducts. Why don't we talk about the chiropractic to pediatric three system conversation?

Okay, let's do it. Well, do you have specific questions or we just dive into it? Just dive in, that's great. We're gonna go on a deep end. I mean, turning back to like what you just said about that gut microbiome, this really is stemming from mom? So from preconception, and she needs a healthy my gut microbiome to pass on to baby which I feel like we're having a hard time now just with our current food and lack of supplements and pumping them full of antibiotics, especially like at birth time and.

You know, they say baby isn't getting those antibiotics, but they definitely are. And what I'm seeing is that babies come out and they have a lot of colic or reflux or eczema is a huge one, or, you know like in a newborn it's going to

Pediatric Chiropractic Exams and Gentle Adjustments 1:58

show up as cradle cap or baby acne. Parents are like, what's going on? I'm like they have a gut imbalance and no one's really talking or addressing it. The pediatricians are just saying, oh, it's just it'll just go away, you know, It'll be fine. But some of these babies are very uncomfortable. And so we have to kind of explore why, And then what I'm finding is parents are just saying, okay, well, I am gonna eat some culturel so that I get some probiotics and then maybe we'll get it through breast milk and it's just not enough.

Okay. So a key takeaway is structural and neurological input during development can influence how efficiently all the systems communicate. That would be fair? Yeah, absolutely. Let me ask you, what does mom do? From the start. From this start? She gets as healthy as she can be, but it is also dad too. So we both have to be healthy to make a healthy baby. I'm smiling because I thought that we passed on, we as males passed down the onus of responsibility to the female. We're good at that. My wife says it's a specialty that men have and I've really got the inside track on it.

99 to a hundred percent of a child's microbiome comes from mom, mitochondria and immune system. But, but how well the pregnancy is, is determined by dad's sperm quality. So. All right. We play a role. I thought it was just that. Well, and if, you know, let's say mom's having a bad pregnancy, maybe she can't eat the healthy foods or even take the prenatal vitamins because she's sick all the time. For parents who may be unfamiliar, what does a pediatric chiropractic exam look like and how does it differ from an adult exam and an adults adjustment in chriopractic?

So it's very different, you know, in a baby or even a toddler who's running around, we can't do the standard like range of motion or orthopedic tests that we would be doing in an adult or like a neurological exam. What we're going to be going for babies and toddlers is a lot of observation. So we are going see what their natural patterns are if they're favoring one side. We're gonna look a lots for like symmetry or asymmetry. particularly in the facial features, because that's gonna dictate how the cranial bones are starting to come together through the first year of life.

And then we're also going to check primitive reflexes. So if there's a neurological issue, such as they have a retained primitive reflux, like as a toddler, we know that that was not integrated well into their nervous system and into the body. That's going affect how they're growing and developing and learning through time. We want to make sure that we can address that as soon as possible. The adjustments are very, very light, gentle adjustments. I always tell the parents, it's as much pressure as you take the ripeness of a tomato.

So there's no twisting, torquing, or popping with the babies. We hold very like pressure until that segment moves or shifts into place. It only takes less than a millimeter to get that statement moving to release tension off the nervous system so the body can function optimally. And in pediatrics, in my opinion, more specific. An adult sometimes I'm like, okay, I'll just kind of adjust everything top to bottom.

Early-Life Stress, Birth Factors, and Infant Conditions 5:11

In a baby or a toddler, we're gonna be very focused on what segment actually needs to be adjusted versus just saying, Okay, am just gonna go here top-to-bottom. It's more strategic. And we are really focusing more on that parasympathetic system. So high cervical spine, so occiput C1, C2, cranial bones, and then the sacrum, which isn't fused until they're older, So that is made up of four segments that can get out of alignment. And that's going to really stimulate the parasympathetic system, which is that system that gets the body in that.

rest and digest calm state, which is what babies need because they come out in a very sympathetic state. You know, birth is very stressful, traumatic almost. And so they're like, what is this whole new world? I don't know how to adapt yet. So if we can regulate the nervous system and get them calm, they can function better. Eat better, poop better sleep better and everyone's just happier. Outstanding. All right. So let's have some rapid fire questions. Get ready. We talked about this before. Put your seatbelt on, get your crash helmet ready, here we go.

Can general torticollis, like I have, what do you think? Oh, I saw your eyes open. Go. I think that's a tough one, but can definitely be addressed right at birth and hopefully like correct or slow down the progression. Right. I wish chiropractic was popular in the mid-60s for me. How old should you be when you get your first chriopractic adjustment? As early, as new as you can be. My first baby was five hours old that I adjusted. It was a home birth. So my question is, male, female, any different or same timeframe?

Same timeframe. Okay. You ready? True or false? Here we go. Your doing great. The pediatric spine is a foundation for lifelong health. True. Hard truth. There we go. Neurodevelopment plasticity and early intervention via chiropractic. True or false? Needed. Birth, early stressors and the developing nervous system. What should you do to avoid some of those developing or should I say those early stresses that damage the developed nervous systems? I mean, be as healthy as you can be during pregnancy, of course.

And then hopefully mom can have as smooth of a labor and delivery as possible. So setting herself up for success in the sense of like being prepared, maybe having support like a doulo or a good partner, being in right setting, making sure that your birth team knows exactly what your wishes are in regards to medication, not medication. You know, dim lights or mood setting. skin to skin, delayed cord clamping, all of those things. So this is a fill in. Pediatric conditions that you commonly see in a practice.

In my practice specifically, I see a lot of feeding issues or tongue tie for infants. We see lot colic reflux and possible constipation. And then toddlers, we see a lot of ear infections, growing pains, and then some neurodivergent tendencies like sensory issues. Well, let's talk about two of them, because two come tongue tie. I think a lotta people wanna know what does a chiropractor do? And of course, the neuro divergent, DADHD. So tongue-tie, it's very important that baby sucks properly at the beginning, cause that's setting up one, their cranial bone structure.

It's also helping to integrate different patterns into the nervous system. And so if they have an oral restriction or a tongue tie that holds the tongue to the floor of the mouth and they cannot elevate it and suck properly. So of course that's going to affect feeding, but that also can affect tension throughout the body through the fascial planes. So we have fascia, which is connective tissue that lays over the muscles. Think of a chicken breast and you peel that filmy layer off, that's fasci, right?

So, we has fascial that connects from the tongue to the diaphragm, Which is where we our breath work, pelvic floor all the way to toes. And if we had a restriction in the time where it's held to floor of the mouth, it is going to pull on the body. So in turn we may see the baby favor one side, they may not be able to open their jaw optimally to latch on to nipple. they may favor flexion or extension, which is going to make it difficult to feed properly. So you bring up a great point about the tongue and the fascial tie-in, because the body's all interconnected, and we know that as chiropractors through the nervous system.

But our next evolution is fascia. That's the Rand-Rapper body zone wetsuit. Who would have thought that the tone may be the centerpiece of the fashion and fasciopul? I mean, as a muscle, isn't it the strongest or one of strongest muscles per weight in the Yeah, very strong. Think the masseter is the strongest. I was thinking about the muscle in the ear, but I think there's debating the data on all that stuff. That's great. But it's somewhere in a mouth in here. What about neurodivergent? I mean, now you probably see this a lot too.

There are a lots of kids that are really struggling and you know, as chiropractors, what we can do is again just help to regulate their nervous system

Tongue-Tie, Neurodivergence, and Gut Health 10:21

so that they can adapt to whatever stressors or triggers for them. So again, we're gonna work on focusing on their parasympathetic system, getting them in that more calm state, and then also focusing those primitive reflexes that may have been retained. If we have retained primitive refluxes, again we know the nervous is not functioning how it should be. And so these kids, can be stressed if there's like too much noise or they have like a sweatshirt on that they don't like, you know, or even sometimes like going to the bathroom can, be a big trigger for them.

Right. And then they, have to sit down in school. So what we're going, to do is help their body learn to adapt. But at the same time, what, we can do, is some of those neurodivergent conditions can. Be stemming from the gut so we, can look at, okay, Did something happen at birth? Maybe they were pumped full of antibiotics or they had chronic ear infections or maybe they have like pans or pandas that's affecting the gut, which is then presenting as a neurodivergent condition. We can maybe help. with some of that by doing some nutrition as well, fixing the debt.

Probiotics. For me, the developing nervous system has a role in shaping gut mobility and motility, enzymatic secretions and immune tolerance. And I think that's forgotten because This probably drives you as crazy as I do. So a 3-year-old comes in and they behave well and give him a lollipop. They give them a Gatorade. Give them cookie. Oh yeah, I love that. The eye roll. That's a great one. I mean, what do you tell a parent? What do they do? what are your options? I'm making better choices. And then it's really hard.

It's hard when kids are in school as well. because they have food coming at all angles, whether it be from their peers or the teachers, the classroom sometimes has snacks. So I recommend they be as good as they can at home, because at least that's like one step, right? Because if they're having bad food and treats coming from outside, atleast at Home, we know we're getting good nutrition there. and then reading labels, making choices, better choices. And then ultimately like, let's support them.

Yeah, they're gonna eat crappy food, right? Like Halloween comes around, Christmas comes round, like it's just there. So let us make sure that their gut is as stable and as healthy as it could be so that when they ingest that stuff, we're not going crazy, you know? You have two children. Am I correct? Yeah. Are they good and free? They are not gluten free. Ooh, I know. We're trying. Dairy free, not dairy free either. How about sugar content? I mean, try to limit it. But again, it's challenging. I don't buy it at home, but I'll tell you from experience, like they have a snack box at school.

And the parents contribute and I'll see rappers in their lunchbox. And I'm like, where'd you get this? You know, or what's going on? So how has posture technology affected the modern child? The iPhones and the iPhone, the iPad, all that kind of stuff. It's surprising how many kids and I'm not talking teenagers, I am talking kids. This is like four year olds, five year old that come into my office with like a spasmodic torticollis because they were looking down and the neck locked up and can't turn their head and they are obviously in pain and the parents are just distraught like what's going on?

What's happening? And you know, then you ask like, well, what did you do? Typically it's like oh, they went to like a jumpy place and then we did the iPad for six hours and everything just like locked up in spasm. So seeing more younger kids with pain, and that's not, kids should not have pain. I agree. The real question is how do you educate your parents based on good quality research without fear based messaging? I think I present it like mom to mom. That's how I do it. You know, connect with them and say, and I get it, I'm in the same situation with my kids.

So, And I always tell them, do the research, know that there's risk and reward in anything you do. but be confident in your decision. Don't feel pressured. When I went to chiropractic school, and I'm a lot older than you, I've got 26 years of experience.

Parenting Choices: Diet, Posture, and Education 14:45

I wanted to be a sports chiopractor. And I was going on that trajectory. The functional medicine and the laser just stopped me in my path. That's where I am now. It's great because at 60, As much as I like the sports injuries, I really think I can make the indelible mark on people's life by adding these two modalities. For you, when did you decide you wanted to be in a pediatric chiropractor and why? Yeah, good question. I actually went into it general chiriopractic, just see anyone, but I wanted specialize in moms.

So I did my Webster certification and the moms started bringing me their babies. and I was like, I should probably know what I'm doing. So I started taking some pediatric courses and started working my way through my pediatric certification through the ICPA. And I just loved it. I mean, it's so amazing working on babies. It's the best. Like my whole day could be babies, It would be my favorite. You know, its funny because people say, how do we change the healthcare system? And you and i have discussed it, at lunch a couple of times, in class a few times.

But one thing that really stood out was, well, if we start them young, getting them healthy, and training them and getting better lifestyle, diet, chiropractic care, etc. So there's lots of misinformation online about pediatric chriopractic. Chiropractic in general, but pediatric, especially. What myths do you wish to clear up? Once and for all, the podium is now yours. Oh, well, it's not dangerous. Super helpful. We're not cracking your babies or your kids. And if you started earlier, your kid's probably would be doing better overall.

So here's another one. Long-term development and performance implications of chiropractic. Like, all right, I have a child. Why do I want to break for chriopractic care? I mean, if anything, If you're like, my child's doing fine and thriving, it's just wellness preventative care. Just like you go to the dentist and you get a cleaning, you know, or you to go the gym and your preventing injury by like re like by working out. I was like You take your child to The chiropractor to make sure that they are growing as healthy as they can grow, preventing Injury in the future.

making sure that their body is working optimally and balancing and regulating their nervous system. So tell me how, but this has been great because everybody's been asking me, can you put somebody on that's not going to give me 10 minute answers? Can you somebody who's going give 60 second answers so you can get the information, go ask that Rob, wait, before she leaves. How physical stressors may compound biochemical ones in infancy, that combination. I mean, I think we can even go back to like pregnancy and birth.

So if mom's pelvis is misaligned and they're stuck in a breach position, that's going to affect how baby's growing and how their muscles are developing and the spine is developing. And they come out all tense and tight, right? You pinch that nerve, particularly maybe the ones that are innervating digestion and regulation. Now this baby can't poop optimally. They can grow optimly because they're so tight due to the restrained condition they were in in utero. I'm going to give you some early life stressors and you're going talk about the effect on the gut brain immune axis, i.e.

the child's health. We'll piggyback on what you just said before. Birth stress, breach. Breach. C-section birth. Early antibiotics. Now my understanding, and help me, isn't that when you're born you get an antibiotic? So you have an I antibiotic that they put on, erythromycin, and if mom tests positive for group B strep, she will be given an antibiotic during labor. To me, they say it doesn't cross the placenta and the baby doesn' get that. I just don't understand how that wouldn't get to the does the baby get exposed to antibiotics or early antibiotics?

I'm not asking vaccines, I am asking antibiotics.

Pediatric Chiropractic Myths, Prevention, and Pregnancy Care 18:58

What I understand is that if it's a NICU baby, they give them antibiotics just as a general rule until they get all the testing back and if they don't have a bacterial infection they'll stop the antibiotics but they are going to get them. A baby who is born vaginally and healthy probably won't get antibiotics at birth. Formula feeding versus breastfeeding. Go for it. Fill in the background. You know, obviously breast milk is best. Like, mom's body knows what nutrients, what antibodies baby needs.

And ideally, every baby would get mom breastmilk. Sometimes mom can't make enough milk and so we have to supplement with formula. The formula that you're given in the hospital, if you look at the first ingredient is corn syrup, which is just horrendous to me. So we always recommend some alternatives. We like the goat milk based formulas because they mimic breast milk. Um, so baby can digest them a little bit easier, but fed is best in my opinion. We can just do better on the type of formula if you have to give your baby formula.

Some of these environmental exposures are common disruptors for the child. I mean, look at adults, you know, now we're talking, if you live near a golf course, of course you have 126% increased chance of Parkinson's. We've got this beautiful term called exposisome, which is a lifetime of exposure to different types of toxins. So obviously day one, year one year three, start that count. You and I are a little behind the eight ball. So why don't you talk a little bit about that. What should people do and how they should protect their child.

Think about what you're putting in your household. So baby's going to be on the mattress. They're going in different fabrics, so you want to get stuff that's natural, not synthetic. Any cleaning products or laundry detergents, you them to be unscented. You want them as natural as possible. So you have to look at the labels. There's some good products out there that are generally like non-endocrine disruptor products. Also like the stuff you bathe your baby in, soaps, you have to look for paraffin free, sulfate free.

You have look all the frees. No fragrances, period. I mean, mom should not be wearing perfume. Cleaners should have any scented things. The laundry detergent should be unscented. If there's one thing that you can change, it's like make sure everything is unsented. So we're talking a lot about the baby. Obviously, the mom plays a critical role. What can you do chiropractically up till the time she's pregnant, during the pregnancy, and post pregnancy? So, we'll take it pre-pregnant, post- pregnancy mom.

Well, I'm a chirapractor, so obviously I am going to say get adjusted. That's great. Get adjusted! That's gonna be the best thing. So number one, make sure you get adjusted pre-pregnancy. I mean, it even has been shown to help with fertility. It's great to make that one your body is in good alignment so that you can house a baby and your nervous system is regulated so you have low cortisol. Again, you could establish the pregnancy and maintain it. And then the next thing I would say is look at what you're putting in your bodies.

Eat as healthy as possible, go organic, go GMO free. You can go gluten free, dairy free even better, but sometimes you want those things. So the future of pediatric chiropractic, I want to discuss that with you. Where is the profession heading in terms of research, technology, and integration? Where's it going? Where's it going? So the ICPA, which is where I'm certified, does a lot of research. So I can appreciate that. And that's where you're gonna find most of the information on pediatric chiropractic research, Dr.

Hawk also does lot, Cheryl Hawk, about pediatric Chiropractics. There's stuff out there which great. I think that more other providers are learning about what we can do and how we work together. including pediatricians, dentists, lactation consultants, speech therapy, OT, PT. So collaborating together with other providers, I think is where we're also, we were there, but I we are headed there even more,

Future of Pediatric Chiropractic and Final Advice 23:38

especially in the rural areas, people are starting to learn more about chiropractic care. I Think social media has helped just families find what, how chiropractic can help. So give me three things to share with my expecting mothers that they need to do in addition to the chriopractic adjustment that you found to work for a healthy delivery, a birthing class that's outside of the hospital. I highly recommend hypnobirthing. That's what I liked, but for sure birting class. Um, get some lactation support, free delivery, that also helps.

And then I was like the birthing class, move your body. I like exercise. You don't have to go crazy, but you have So you can exercise during pregnancy without question. Absolutely. You should be exercising. I hear you. And I saw a girl in a gym, a young lady, and she looked a minimum of eight months pregnant. She was doing barbell back squats. Now, I don't know if you recommend that, but she was, she's like, look, the pediatrician said that I could continue with it. It'll be doing up to the day that give birth.

I did Pilates my whole pregnancy. Yes, I was like, move your body, moving in a way that you've done before. And if you haven't exercise and you're new to exercise, you can start with like walking and squats are really, really good, not weighted squats, just body squats. Here's one for you. My buddy, I always end with this. He lives out in Geneva, great friend of mine, and I've always wanted to give him one thing to do. But obviously he's passed the baby making like I am, but he has daughters that are 25, 27 and approximately 30. As a prospective grandfather, what would you suggest to him to suggest his three daughters?

I mean, get as healthy as they can be. So that probably is gonna be more than one thing, but this is, okay, you know what? I actually have it. If they're on birth control, Get off birth Control. That's gonna make a big difference. Get off birth control and clear your body for a couple of years before you're ready to conceive. Sounds good. So any last parting shots for everybody for pediatric chiropractic? Give them the one thing that you need to chew on. I hope you guys would bring your child or see the benefit in chiriopractic care.

And if you are not sure yet, find a good pediatric Chiropractor and bring them so you can learn and just help your children grow and thrive optimally. Outstanding. This has been great. You definitely dropped some knowledge bombs. You kept up with the New York speed, I love it. We have to do a part two. I look forward to seeing you again when it come down to Texas and the Houston area. She's a great practitioner. Dr. Rob Silverman, Proven Health Alternatives, always yours in health.