The amount of acid reflux medication prescribed to infants increased 700% between 1999 and 2004.
There has been a drastic rise in the number of parents giving their infants acid reflux medication in the past years. This is partly because doctors are diagnosing it more often and partly because it is so heavily advertised. One study that looked at the data for more than 1 million babies found that the amount of acid reflux medication prescribed to infants increased 700% between 1999 and 2004. Unfortunately, the only thing most doctors are able to do is prescribe medication. The problem, as with all medication, is that there are side effects. In infants these can include diarrhea, constipation and abdominal pain as well as liver problems and polyps in the stomach with long term use.
For years, we have known that chiropractic care can help with acid reflux not only in adult but in infants as well. Most people just don’t tend to put the two together. I have seen first hand the benefit chiropractic can have on infants, not only on my own, but my infant patients as well. New research is coming out everyday to show just how effective chiropractic care can be for this and many other conditions.
Research published in the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health on May 9, 2009 documented the cases of 16 infants who were suffering with acid reflux and/or colic and got complete resolution of their symptoms with chiropractic care. In the study, seven of the infants were diagnosed by a medical physician with colic, while nine had been diagnosed with acid reflux prior to receiving chiropractic care. The infants in this study ranged in age from two weeks to eleven months old.
Of the 16 infants, a history of birth trauma was reported in 10 of the cases. Upon examination, upper cervical (neck) subluxations were determined to be present in all 16 cases. In this study chiropractic care was rendered for 2 to 6 weeks on the various infants with all of the patients showing a complete resolution of their symptoms in that time frame.
Dr. Erin Elster, a chiropractor and the author of the study, explained the relationship between subluxation and colic or acid reflux by saying, “Research is revealing that injuries to the upper part of the neck may be a factor in a number of disorders. These injuries lead to misalignments in the neck that may compress the spinal cord and other nerve structures in the neck. This compression leads to nerve interference and can result in a host of disorders such as colic and acid reflux”.
Dr. Matthew McCoy a chiropractor, public health researcher and editor of the journal that published the study added, “It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. If you damage or compress the neurological structures in the neck this can have far reaching implications on the functioning of the body. Through research like Dr. Elster’s we are finding that correcting the misalignments associated with these injuries reduces the nerve compression and people improve. In this study it was infants suffering from colic and acid reflux.”
In her conclusions the author, Dr. Elster wrote, “These results suggest a causal link between birth trauma, upper cervical injury, and colic / acid reflux onset. Correcting the injury to the upper cervical spine (with chiropractic adjustments) appears to eliminate colic and acid reflux.”
Chiropractic adjustments to this part of the spine in infants with these symptoms respond very well. Adjustments to infants are much different that those we give to adults. Very light and gentle pressure is used to adjust an infant in our office. We specialize in helping many infants and children with all sorts of health conditions because we remove nerve interference and allow the body to function properly. Call our office today if you would like to schedule an appointment for your child and see how chiropractic can help them.
