Have you ever been to a chiropractor? My first visit to one was in 1989, just weeks after my youngest son was born. We went specifically because of the complications of my son's birth.
To digress for a moment, it saddens me that I never had the chance to have a home birth but I had insurance at the time and it wouldn't cover such a thing. We were living from paycheck to paycheck so couldn't come up with additional funds to pay a midwife. So my next best choice was my family practitioner who also delivered babies. He was a pretty cool doctor and one thing I really appreciated was that he was reluctant to prescribe antibiotics except for extreme and necessary situations. In my case, just days before my son was due I had a splitting headache which he diagnosed to be a sinus infection. We tried many natural supplements but nothing helped. Eventually my headache was so bad that I was vomiting from the pain and at that time he prescribed an antibiotic. But back to my story.
Due to meconium (the baby's first bowel movement and an indicator of stress for the infant) in my waters, there was some concern by the hospital staff that my son should maybe come out by c-section. I remember a surgeon and pediatrician standing by while I labored, and at one point my doctor took them into the hallway and had a talk with them, informing them that he was going to give me a chance to birth my son naturally. To help speed things along and I believe to pacify the other doctors, once my son's head was birthed, after suctioning his mouth and nose, my doctor took hold and started to pull and twist in a figure 8. It was very painful for me, I can't even imagine how it felt to my newborn baby to have his head pulled in such a fashion.
We were in the hospital for less than 12 hours and came home. My oldest son Matthew had a cold and my baby caught it. My doctor was worried the fever was due to possibly aspirating meconium into his lungs so back we went into the hospital for several days where he was given antibiotics.
My son was inconsolable from the time he was born. This was shocking to me since Matthew was such a good baby who rarely cried and slept easily. My newborn cried almost constantly and slept only a couple hours at a time. I walked him, I rocked him, he nursed until he threw up. I would sit on the side of the bed and bounce him, in a daze because I was so exhausted from my sleep being interrupted. Nothing helped, he continued to cry and couldn't sleep.
I had a doula with me at his birth (she was actually a lay midwife and had attended my nephew's birth just two months earlier, how I wished we could have been at home birthing my son) and she suggested that we take the little guy to a chiropractor as she was certain he could benefit from an adjustment.
He was such a tiny little thing, and the chiropractor used her thumbnail to carefully press his neck into alignment. My baby slept five hours for the first time in his short life. It was an incredible relief. We settled into a routine of going to the chiropractor three times each week. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we drove 9 miles there and back. In the beginning, it was definitely necessary. My son was happy throughout the week, but come Sunday – when he hadn't had his every other day adjustment, he started to get very fussy.
I ended up seeing that chiropractor until she moved out of the state. She recommended another chiropractor so we went there once or twice, until my son Matthew was banned. Yes, banned. So, off on a rabbit trail for a minute… apparently Matthew brought in a metal nail file and somehow the chiropractor got the impression Matthew threatened him. He wasn't having any of that, so his staff told me Matthew was not allowed to return to the office.
Matthew was 7 years old at the time. Matthew has Down Syndrome. I was with him in the room the whole time. He did not struggle with the chiropractor, he was accustomed to being adjusted. At any rate, I stopped going to chiropractors at that time.
For the last two decades I have been extremely reluctant to go to a chiropractor. I believe wholeheartedly in chiropractic care but the main reason was because I didn't want to have to commit to going three times a week. I just don't have the time to fit one more commitment into my life.
This post is getting very long so I am going to share my current experience and why I'm now seeing a chiropractor in another post.
Starlene, I had no idea that little babies could go to chiropractors. It sounds like it was helpful for your son and he benefited from the adjustments. My infant daughter is quite fussy and she cries a lot, just like your son did. Maybe I should try taking her in for an adjustment.