Join us in this enlightening conversation on the world of pediatric chiropractic care with the remarkable Dr. Betel Aklilu. Promising a fresh perspective, Dr. Aklilu shares how chiropractic medicine can be a game-changer for your child's health, starting from birth. Starting with the physical trauma that newborns undergo during childbirth and how chiropractic care can alleviate the stress on their tiny muscles and joints, setting them on a path to optimal nerve and muscle function.
We journey further into the extensive benefits of pediatric chiropractic care. Get insights on how conditions such as torticollis, fluid-filled ears, and latching problems, can be addressed by a pediatric chiropractor. Dr. Aklilu illustrates the transformative Webster technique, a chiropractic method designed to help pregnant people. She also explains how a misaligned atlas can be the root cause of many of the common newborn troubles that many allopathic providers consider to be "normal".
Lastly, we elevate our discussion to encompass the holistic wellness that chiropractic care can bring to your child's life. As Dr. Aklilu underscores, chiropractic solutions are not just for immediate relief but for long-term health. She gives an account of how pediatric chiropractors work hand in hand with other healthcare professionals like pediatric dentists
Want me as your birth coach? You got it!
I will help you:
☑️identify the source of anxiety you have surrounding birth.
☑️fill in knowledge gaps to make sure that you are fully informed and confident.
☑️learn key phrases so you can better communicate with your medical team.
☑️emotionally process your fears so that they don’t hold power over you
Go to kellyhof.com to book a free 30 minute birth vision call.
Medical Disclaimer: This podcast is intended as a safe space for women to share their birth experiences. It is not intended to provide medical advice. Each woman’s medical course of action is individual and may not appropriately transfer to another similar situation. Please speak to your medical provider before making any medical decisions. Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that evidence based practice evolves as our knowledge of science improves. To the best of my ability I will attempt to present the most current ACOG and AWHONN recommendations at the time the podcast is recorded, but that may not necessarily reflect the best practices at the time the podcast is heard. Additionally, guests sharing their stories have the right to autonomy in their medical decisions, and may share their choice to go against current practice recommendations. I intend to hold space for people to share their decisions. I will attempt to share the current recommendations so that my audience is informed, but it is up to each individual to choose what is best for them.
Join us in this enlightening conversation on the world of pediatric chiropractic care with the remarkable Dr. Betel Aklilu. Promising a fresh perspective, Dr. Aklilu shares how chiropractic medicine can be a game-changer for your child's health, starting from birth. Starting with the physical trauma that newborns undergo during childbirth and how chiropractic care can alleviate the stress on their tiny muscles and joints, setting them on a path to optimal nerve and muscle function.
We journey further into the extensive benefits of pediatric chiropractic care. Get insights on how conditions such as torticollis, fluid-filled ears, and latching problems, can be addressed by a pediatric chiropractor. Dr. Aklilu illustrates the transformative Webster technique, a chiropractic method designed to help pregnant people. She also explains how a misaligned atlas can be the root cause of many of the common newborn troubles that many allopathic providers consider to be "normal".
Lastly, we elevate our discussion to encompass the holistic wellness that chiropractic care can bring to your child's life. As Dr. Aklilu underscores, chiropractic solutions are not just for immediate relief but for long-term health. She gives an account of how pediatric chiropractors work hand in hand with other healthcare professionals like pediatric dentists
Want me as your birth coach? You got it!
I will help you:
☑️identify the source of anxiety you have surrounding birth.
☑️fill in knowledge gaps to make sure that you are fully informed and confident.
☑️learn key phrases so you can better communicate with your medical team.
☑️emotionally process your fears so that they don’t hold power over you
Go to kellyhof.com to book a free 30 minute birth vision call.
Medical Disclaimer: This podcast is intended as a safe space for women to share their birth experiences. It is not intended to provide medical advice. Each woman’s medical course of action is individual and may not appropriately transfer to another similar situation. Please speak to your medical provider before making any medical decisions. Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that evidence based practice evolves as our knowledge of science improves. To the best of my ability I will attempt to present the most current ACOG and AWHONN recommendations at the time the podcast is recorded, but that may not necessarily reflect the best practices at the time the podcast is heard. Additionally, guests sharing their stories have the right to autonomy in their medical decisions, and may share their choice to go against current practice recommendations. I intend to hold space for people to share their decisions. I will attempt to share the current recommendations so that my audience is informed, but it is up to each individual to choose what is best for them.
Speaker 1:
Hello, today I have with me Dr Patel Aklelu. Dr Aklelu is a doctor of chiropractic medicine and the owner of Kali chiropractic. She is certified in Webster Technique, which is beneficial for pregnancy, and she is certified to care for babies and children as well. Today she is here to talk about how she helps kids, starting with newborns and up. Dr Aklelu, welcome and thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for having me, Kali. I'm very honored to be here today.
Speaker 1:
I am so curious about what you have to say. I remember I took my daughter to a chiropractor. I don't even remember what it was for. I've taken her a couple times, I think. But my husband was like what are you going to do? Are they going to hang her upside down by her ankles? So I really hope that most people don't think that. But I know that's not what it is about and it's very gentle and I know there's a lot of benefits and I probably don't know even the half of it. So I am really excited to sit back and listen to what you have to say.
Speaker 2:
You know it's interesting Most people don't find a pediatric chiropractor or find out about pediatric chiropractic care until they're frustrated about something you know. I've googled this time and time again and somewhat it just keeps coming up and I think, maybe because XYZ hasn't worked, maybe I'll try the chiropractor. So it's kind of for many not for all an option of last resort. So I love that we get to do this today so we can introduce pediatric chiropractic care to the world again and to know about it. But the number one thing that I want everyone to walk away with is an understanding that chiropractic care is very safe and very gentle and the earlier you begin getting chiropractic care meaning getting care for your spine and for your joints and for your muscles the better.
Speaker 1:
My biggest thing is allopathic medicine is problem-based, and so that's what we're accustomed to, and what we really should be doing is getting into the habit of preventing disease, and so my understanding of chiropractic medicine is to prevent disease and maintain health. Right Is that?
Speaker 2:
correct. Yes, so you hit it. So allopathic medicine is about pathogenesis. It's something that's wrong. How do we fix it?
Speaker 2:
As opposed to how we look at things from a salutogenic model, meaning, how do we keep a system well, how do we nurture things continuing to work, not necessarily fix something that's broken. So where we look at from a chiropractic lens for pediatrics is okay. This is a newborn, but this newborn just experienced trauma. So in the womb we're in all sorts of funky positions your head may be tilted back, may be upside down or however right Different positions in the womb, in this confined small space. Then we're re-experienced birth, and that could be through the vaginal canal or it's a cesarean birth.
Speaker 2:
However we come into the world, there's some level of trauma that's associated with it. Now, because of that, what we're doing as pediatric chiropractors are looking at the skeletal structure, we're looking at the muscles, we're looking at the joints and we're looking at tissue tension throughout the body and saying, hey, has this been a little locked up? Is this a little bit of moving? Do we need help with extending in an area? So a lot of it is just inducing and helping create movement in areas that maybe this newborn baby doesn't know how to do yet. So it's really about that, and in that process we help peel off some of those layers of trauma. We peel off some of those layers of maybe some tension that may be happening, and so we're looking at okay, let's just help this baby have the best chance in optimizing and allowing the nerves and the muscles and the nervous system to work at its best.
Speaker 1:
So not necessarily trying to fix something, but just make sure it's doing well, right, and I mean to elaborate that, since I see birth happen every day. The things that we know physiologically occur when you're being born, specifically if it's a vaginal birth, I'll start with that. I mean the baby's head is going to get squished. Those bones in the skull are not fused and so they are created to be malleable and one can pass over the other. We see babies, if they've been sitting in while the cervix is dilating, if they're sitting in the pelvis for a long period of time, you get swelling in the skull that has to go down as those bones go back to, or hopefully go back to, where they're supposed to. There is smushing of all, because babies basically are cartilage. When they come out they're like little bowls of Jell-O that slide out. They're just this gelatinous creature that comes out that has to solidify eventually.
Speaker 1:
There's so much that goes on, especially if the verse that I see the head comes out, the shoulders are next. There's like, depending on the provider, slight tension that they put on the head as they pull and maneuver the baby out. Depending on the position of the arms, there could be trauma there. It is not an easy process for the baby and I think people discount that a lot. Neither is it with a C-section. Imagine a baby that's been breech. I see babies come out. Their legs are just literally straight up near their ears and then when they try to put them down they're stiff. They can't bend their knees correctly. There's so many things that I see that are that probably. I mean, we don't treat them, especially we don't treat them at the hospital, unless it's something that is surgical or that we can give medication for. We're not exactly doing any chiropractic care or massage for the newborns, so how do we fix all that?
Speaker 2:
How do we fix all of that? So in my ideal world, people like myself would be in hospitals where birth is taking place or in birthing centers wherever have you Because as soon as we can get to these babies and help to ease the tension in those areas, like you said, we're not breaking children. In fact, it's very hard to break a baby. It's a lot of cartilage and as soft and gentle and fragile as we may think they are, they're actually very strong and they've endured so much. And so those times right there, that's crucial.
Speaker 2:
It's crucial, I know, for me, for my nephew he was. I adjusted him within 24 hours and I know the difference that that made Because he was able to sleep better and to nurse better and to just do better, because I was quick to address some of the things that I was seeing early on, and every time something would come up with a pediatrician, it was quick to all right, let's get some movement, let's start some exercises, let's do these things. So we weren't trying to necessarily fix something always. We're just making sure that he's doing well on a day-to-day basis. A lot of people don't know that and if you don't know that because your doctors aren't telling you, because they most likely don't know.
Speaker 1:
That is correct. That is not taught in medical school.
Speaker 2:
Well, it's this concept, but again, it's super gentle. It's, for me, as a practitioner, fun and joyful because, like you described, some of these babies have had their feet by their ears for months or they're born the bones right, the cranial bones that have slid over one another. They haven't necessarily come back apart the way that they should. That's changed the shape of their head and has changed how their jaw and their jaw movements, their tongue movements, their neck movements, and so they're not comfortable, have no way to express that other than to maybe not latch or be fussy or have gas or colic, or sometimes just not sleep through the night, whatever have you. And unfortunately, because we're not accustomed to chiropractic care so early on, some of these things go on for longer than they should and it's passed off as oh, that's just a newborn. All babies cry, some babies latch, some babies are just constipated, things like that. We're starting to mistake what's common for what's normal.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I wish that there were chiropractors at hospitals and I wish that all insurance covered chiropractic care and it's been depending on my insurance. It's like how do I budget for my chiropractic care? I know my chiropractor in New York. My chiropractor did see babies. I know that he would make hospital calls. Yeah, they should be in the hospitals.
Speaker 2:
Well, to that point, if we had this let's not just call it chiropractic care, right, let's call it wellness. And if we were doing wellness care and taking care of our bodies in these times when you're pregnant or when you're just born and have just experienced your first trauma, I mean leaps and bounds we would fix so many different things to the point where I couldn't even list them right.
Speaker 2:
Some things we only know to be problems because we just were never really well to begin with. You have a baby that's struggling with torticollis, had problems with latching, and we just kind of do other things rather than truly get to the foundation of that Later on. That's changing how the baby looks and perceives the world, how the baby speaks, moves. It's our entire foundation that's being based off of something that we potentially not to say that we do this one thing and it's a miracle. It could absolutely be that it could also just be just giving a child the full advantage of being able to have a restful nervous system and grow with a solid foundation. You know, I just think of how many moms and babies would benefit from the type of attention and touch and is true love, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
I remember when my daughter was having some issues with her with fluid in her ears and I took her to the chiropractor and I think it was like I mean I definitely should have taken her sooner. I just wasn't sure how she was gonna respond. The pressure on the I believe it's the mastoid process. She really hated it and probably because it was so irritated by then and so inflamed by then cause she had constant fluid in her ears. I really wish that I'd done that sooner.
Speaker 2:
That atlas goes off and that's really the key, like in Webster. There's a key part of the Webster technique that I think does 80, 90% of it and for children they're creating the relief and for children it's really in that upper cervical region and making sure that we've created relief in any tension from the cranial bones or in the cervical region and then that really that's a game changer.
Speaker 2:
That's a game changer. But it allows the fluid in your ear to flow better, it allows your tongue to move better. The drainage from your sinus cavities, all of that, feeding, swallowing gags, all of it.
Speaker 1:
Wow, that is hugely important because I know so many kids have issues with the sinus drainage in the ear Cause when they're babies. A lot of people don't know this. Their eustachian tubes are horizontal and as they grow they start to move in a more vertical not vertical diagonal way, and so it is very, very common for kids to have fluid behind their ears, which it's uncomfortable, and so it's really important to help them with that drainage. And so I mean, if that's not an argument in itself to go to a chiropractor to help them with that drainage, because it is gonna happen physiologically to every single baby. That's just the way that they're made, and I don't remember is it age four when they start to stretch and move more in a diagonal?
Speaker 2:
Well, I, don't know the exact age. It's a great question, Lym.
Speaker 1:
I think it was for cause that was about the time that they were like well, by then you probably wouldn't need ear tubes, cause my daughter ended up getting ear tubes.
Speaker 2:
Many parents seek chiropractic care. That happens to be one of the bigger reasons to seek out a chiropractor because they don't wanna have surgery. So that and colic yes, colic is a huge one because it's from the allopathic stance there's nothing to be done, there's no reason for it, there's nothing we can do for it either, and it is devastating for a parent. Yeah, and seem to get their child to rest, to be comfortable and to stop crying.
Speaker 1:
It's heartbreaking. Yeah, cause if the baby's not resting, nobody is. Nobody's resting, nobody's resting. Yeah, I've been there. That's frustrating, just thinking of my own experience, my daughter. We moved here from New York when she was like four and a half months and, as you can imagine, it was a drive. She was in the car seat for a long time. There were definitely. It disrupted her sleep and it didn't occur to me that maybe the car seat ride had something to do with it. I just assumed that it was the environment, which probably, you know, a new environment does have something to do with it. But can you speak a little bit about? I mean, keep your kids in car seats for sure, but I know that car seats can help and hinder alignment, depending on a lot of things.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's it. I love that she brought that up, because a lot of people do come to me for my baby doesn't like the car seat and because it's now, I can't get from point A to point B. We can't make it to appointments without baby crying. You know all these different things. Parents are trying to figure out what's going on with this car seat. So what I find a lot of times with my babies and who are crying in the car seat, it's the position that their back is in and they typically have a subluxation or dysfunction something for us as chiropractors to correct in that area where the thoracic spine meets the lumbar spine, and it's just this very uncomfortable seated position that babies get in and can't really extend and can't really get themselves comfortable and it's gonna like adults, you know, pushes on your belly, pushes on your diaphragm, you can't breathe as well. Babies don't know what's going on. So there's all of that. So it can lead to lots of different things.
Speaker 2:
In some cases, with older children I've seen it's the motion of the car and it making them really nauseous and with that I found that cervical adjustments have been a huge role. Yes, yes, so with getting car sick and things. That's been really very, very helpful. So the car seat you know you have to be safe, you have to be in a car seat. Sometimes I look at the car seat and I want and we talk about different ways to maybe pad the back of the seat and those areas where babies maybe have some more tension, and then, but oftentimes with adjustments, that's also no longer a concern and that does. Sometimes it's one or two adjustments. And just to talk a little bit about the adjustments themselves the motion, the movement that we're putting into a baby. It's very light. So oftentimes I have parents kind of put their hands over mine so they can see the force that I'm putting in. Sometimes I explain to them like I actually have to put in some level of a force here or we're not going to get the adjustment that we want to receive.
Speaker 2:
And then in some cases people you know have the perception oh, it's going to be too rough, it's going to be too much. Actually, most of the time if a baby is distracted, they are completely unaware that anything even happened, you know. So there is that too. So it's a matter of really helping parents to feel empowered Before I adjust to have parents hold their baby, kind of feel how their baby weighs, right.
Speaker 2:
And then I'll adjust the baby and say, okay, hold your baby again. And often, almost 100% of the time, the baby feels lighter and it's like anyone else, right, when you're holding a bunch of tension, you're just holding, you feel heavier and when that tension starts to go away you feel lighter. And that has been, I think, beyond anything else I've done in the office from a first time adjustment. Parents go okay, that's where they see it and they go okay. So I'm not making it up in my mind that my baby likes this, because I have stories that say to me Dr A, my friends make fun of me all the time because you're like you take your kid to the chiropractor.
Speaker 2:
Really oh boozy, but it's true Once you understand that it's a need. And that's one of the myths of chiropractic right, this idea of oh, if you go now, if you start going, you're going to have to go for the rest of your life?
Speaker 1:
First of all, not true. Second of all, why is that a bad thing? Thank you, I'm going to go for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:
So, but we also are bodies who need care. Right, right, we sit and we jump and we eat and we experience lots of different things. And some people go to the chiropractor because it helps them with their anxiety. For some it helps with their depression. For some it helps with their constipation. For some it helps with their back pain and neck pain and shoulder pain. You know we're going to the chiropractor for different things. For some it's a nervous system thing. Right, are we stuck in fight or flight? We're so tense all the time. This helps me and helps my body relax. It helps me sleep or it just helps my body because I don't do good things with my body. You know I lift heavy weights or I work on cars or whatever, have you right? Or I'm deliver babies, beigy, texting tea, whatever have you. So why not think about your wellness early on? Why not teach our children and our babies to take care of themselves?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely. I usually recommend to all moms, when they're about to deliver or they're pregnant, to go to the chiropractor, because I just feel like it is so much more helpful. I don't get as much buy-in with the taking the babies, but I do mention it. But now I have something to back me up.
Speaker 2:
Yes, and it's interesting to me and I don't fault anyone because, at the end of the day, you do the best you can with the information that you have. Being a parent is hard enough, you know, and I'm not a parent, so I'm definitely not going to put my opinion on one way or another. However, I'm just trying to take care of my dogs. So there's that. You adjust your dogs, I do, whether I should or not.
Speaker 1:
We should do an episode on canine adjustment.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's the whole thing. But for me, knowing what I know, because I've studied what I've studied, and because I've seen so many births and birthing people and their experiences and so many babies, I would never have a baby not get adjusted if that was an option. Right, right, yeah, because of that. But I do understand for those who are listening who have never maybe never been adjusted themselves, can't even fathom the idea of a child being said really do think about finding a safe space, finding a provider you feel most comfortable with, so you could share what some of these fears are, and maybe just tiptoeing and walking through what this looks like, just because we don't know it or because we're scared, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't, we shouldn't have to miss out and really babies shouldn't? I think in my perfect world, every child should have the opportunity to be adjusted.
Speaker 1:
Yeah yeah, absolutely. And I say that agreeing, completely agreeing with you, and probably having neglected doing that to my own kids. I only took my daughter twice. Even one time can change everything.
Speaker 1:
Well, that's good to know, but you're reminding me that maybe I should. My son is, he's four. He has motion sickness and I've noticed he doesn't have ear pain, but I've noticed his drainage is not good. So I'm wondering if he does have something going on in his cervical spine. And there's two other things that came up for me when you were saying all that. First of all, you mentioned babies that are difficult to latch. There are some soft tissue issues that I've noticed are the problem and those are things that, as a nurse and working with lactation consultants, we can kind of see like a tongue tie or a lip tie. But there's other things that I think I remember that we don't deal with or even acknowledge. Is there stuff that goes on with, like the palate? Absolutely, can you talk about that, because there's other reasons that we can't fix necessarily with allopathic medicine. That could be a problem with the latch Right.
Speaker 2:
So just to speak on tongue ties or lip ties. So pediatric chiropractors work hand in hand with pediatric dentists and ENTs, so it's all the same anatomy and it's different tools for how you get to an endpoint. So I've had babies with tongue ties that are latching well and moving well and dentists have said, hey, we don't have to make a surgical correction in this case, if you're comfortable with where things are. I've had cases, many cases too, where parents are, hey, I'm more comfortable with having this release performed and I would like the care before and after with chiropractic to give me a whole well-rounded care for what's going on, because even after a tongue tie release, there is that potential of it reattaching. So we need to keep the exercises moving so that the tongue continues to move, and chiropractic care is so imperative during that time because it's helping exactly the soft tissue. So I do a lot of work when it comes to that and I tell parents, some pediatric chiropractors will definitely say to you or may say to you I can't speak for anyone else, may say to you, no, don't have this release done. Or maybe we'll say, do, have this release done For me. It's, you're the parent, so we're going to get all of this information. I'm going to give it to you, they're going to give it to you and together we can make a decision. We can help you to come to a decision that's best for you and for your family and for your child.
Speaker 2:
Right the palate is when we're doing cranial adjustments and remember we talked about the like you mentioned, how the bones go over one another so that the baby can come out of the vaginal space. Well, once we're releasing the tension there, that same thing is happening to the. It's the, because it's all pressure, it's all kind of, it's all connected and that's literally the bottom of the craning, so we can go in there and use our thumbs to help to widen out that space. Pressure points there are very, very important, in addition to just massaging parts of the temple and in the jaw, underneath the jaw, all those different things in the back of the head, back of the neck, so lots of different things that we can do from a soft tissue standpoint, and these are things that I can show parents. This is what I'm doing, it's not some mysterious clandestine thing that you're doing.
Speaker 2:
I want to empower this parent, so when they're at home and they're reading a bedtime story and the baby's not in an office where they're not comfortable right, they can do some of these things and they can feel some of this tension and really be present with what's going on. I think that's really helpful.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you've touched on colic, you've touched on latching, you've touched on the bones in their head.
Speaker 2:
Often we have restrictions in the head, in the neck, in the jaw, in the face. You have restrictions also in the pelvic space and that can lead to just being a uncomfortable one in a car seat right or any of these swings that we put babies in, and also not being able to pass gas easily, being more constipated, and they're uncomfortable, they don't know how to tell you right here hurts, it got squished in that process and when we hold babies we squish them even more and we swaddle them and we put them together like a little bundle and we're not eliciting enough movement. Really, the key to all of this for everyone is movement is life. So when we move, we are living, and when we move, our joints are flourishing, they're staying mobile, they're staying well, nourished, right, and when we're not moving, our system starts to get stuck and things can't release and we become a little bit more stiff in all of those different things. And then it makes you think, because most parents think there's nothing wrong with my kid, my kid is perfect, my kid is happy, smiling, you know, slept well today.
Speaker 2:
All of those different things it's harder for parents to pick up on, hmm, or to maybe acknowledge maybe, maybe he does look to the right more than he does to the left, you know, yeah. And then he wants maybe there is a deviation to his job, maybe I mean like, who's perfectly symmetrical, you know, nobody, you know. So these kind of things. When I sit down with the parents and say, okay, let's just take a look right, that's when they start to open up their eyes, because often they've gone to the pediatrician time and time again and they're being told, oh, everything's okay, this is good, this is fine, everything's okay. And that's what's really assessing for the things that I'm looking for.
Speaker 1:
Some other things that come up for me is like hips. You know you mentioned swaddle. Oh yeah, that's a big thing. I swaddle the top, I don't swaddle the bottom. Really Love it, okay, yeah, okay. Babies need to be able to move those hips and if they want their arms, I mean they can get their arms out, right.
Speaker 2:
But want to, right. And I think that the reason behind the swaddle like correct me if I'm wrong was really because of the startle reflex, because we just want babies to be able to sleep without startling themselves and waking themselves up, but it can't come at the cost of your baby's joints, right, yeah. So I love that. You know everyone's going to do something a little differently. But now what I've seen as of late is all of my breeched babies, no matter what, even if they were just breeched for just a short period of time, they get ultrasounds of their hips. Yeah, right, yeah, I'm noticing that a lot. I'm noticing that and it's interesting because they were born completely fine vaginal birth, head down and everything. But it's interesting to me that that's happening and I wonder why.
Speaker 2:
Why are we doing that Rather than just doing an exam on the hip? I do a hip exam and everything is fine. I don't think that the ultrasound is necessary. Now, most of my parents get the ultrasound anyway, and that's true, right. But I think that there is somewhere deep down in here a push for okay, we know some things, we just don't know what to do or where to. You know where to send these. He's just to make sure everything's okay. But now, more and more, I have my parents just kind of say hey, you know, I take my baby to the pediatric chiropractor. She's checked the hips. But sure, if you think that ultrasounds, let's do that.
Speaker 1:
Well, I mean there would be maybe a little bit of retrospective studies for those that. I mean maybe they should know who has been going to the chiropractor and who is you know. We could be able to go back and like, do some research on oh, babies that go to the chiropractor don't need interventions. That's just my hypothesis. I'm loving it?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you know I would love to. I ask all the time. When I have a pediatrician who doesn't think so favorably of pediatric chiropractic care or seeing a pediatric chiropractor, and the parents are coming to me anyways, I ask them to just gently ask Maybe not I'm going to need to badger with questions but say, like, where does this thought come from? Is it a personal perspective or are there studies? Is there something that's saying to you? There is a reason not to. And in all of my years so far, I was very recently introduced to this idea that maybe from the allopathic sands, babies or children shouldn't see a chiropractor until 12, until they're 12. Now that's too late. You know, and I believe that the ideas that their growth plates are formed and you know, I won't even go further into that. I'll say that before babies or children are 12 years old, exposing them to lots of different things sports, gymnastics, ballet, all the things that make the joints go crazy.
Speaker 2:
Exactly, and we can do all of those things. Where is the logic that getting some care for your body should wait?
Speaker 1:
You would send someone to a physical therapist if they damaged the soft tissue.
Speaker 2:
Correct, and physical therapy is where pediatricians would recommend and send their children, which is awesome because physical therapists are needed and they're going to be. I think that some of this is really more political and historical than it should be, but here we are.
Speaker 1:
Yeah Well, and the thing is, my argument is always like yes, you can go see a physical therapist also Absolutely. But let's consider the fact that if you're going to be exercising your body on something that is misaligned, where is the physics in that? I've never understood why chiropractors are so maligned. That has just always baffled me. And just to say, I mean, I know so. My dad's a surgeon and he was like don't let them adjust your neck. Well, that's not fully true either.
Speaker 1:
Now, if you're uncomfortable with something that happens and just this is a little bit of a tangent, because we're supposed to be talking about adjusting the neck in kids is completely different than adjusting the neck in adults. But there are a lot of options that don't involve twisting your head, and I'm not going to comment on whether or not getting your head twisted is bad or good, because I've had it done. But if you're uncomfortable with that, there's other options. So, just to dispel the whole body popper, head twister hanging by the feet that's not what chiropractors do 95% of the time. Correct, then at all.
Speaker 2:
Especially not with babies?
Speaker 1:
Oh, of course not with babies. And additionally, I mean, I think, I think, if I remember right, you have videos on Instagram. At least Do you also have YouTube?
Speaker 2:
I don't. I'm going to be making YouTube videos soon with my nephew will be making YouTube videos, so that will be awesome.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so if anyone's curious about what it is that chiropractors do with babies and children, your Instagram now remind me of your Instagram handle, because I forgot to write it down.
Speaker 2:
It's kallai underscore chiro wellness.
Speaker 1:
So you can go to her Instagram. I'm going to put it in the show notes. I'm also going to have your website in the show notes. So if you're curious but not quite sure if you should go see a pediatric chiropractor and now I know I mean you're based in Virginia. Not everybody in the world is going to be coming to Northern Virginia to find you, but you can also look for chiropractors that are pediatric chiropractors if you would like your child to be evaluated. So it's not, you know they're, they're all over, all over and you can learn before you go. You can share with your pediatrician some of the videos so that they can understand what's going on and the logic. And if we all just start having an open conversation about the benefits and trying to understand, instead of having this closed perspective where, oh no, that's bad, that's not the norm, maybe we can prevent some things before they happen. Yes, well, dr Akleelu, is there anything we didn't touch on that you wanted to talk about?
Speaker 2:
No, I think that that was beautiful.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I know you could probably talk all day about it, and I'm pretty sure I could too, but you've definitely opened my eyes to some other things that I didn't know about and motivated me to. Maybe, since we're getting to the end of the year and we've already hit our out of pocket Max, maybe it's time to get my kids to the chiropractor again. There you go, and insurance companies cover chiropractic care. Do a better job. Do a better job.
Speaker 2:
Do a better job. Covering wellness yes, because keep people well.
Speaker 1:
Maybe they won't get sick. Yes, yes, yes, all of that All right. Well, dr Akleelu, I really enjoyed this episode. I am really excited for my listeners to hear about pediatric chiropractic medicine and incorporate that into their care of their newborns and their children. Thank you, thank you so much.
