Hi Reader

Dad Joke: What has five toes and isn’t your foot? My foot

Mrs Jones says to you: “What happens when you adjust my child…what does it do?”

What do you say?

If you fumble that, there’s no coming back from it. This is the thing that makes you unique. It’s the reason they have chosen to see you…for the thing you do! Your messaging on this has to be 100% crystal clear.

How do I know this? Because I have fumbled it plenty. And I know what it feels like to sit there with a mouth full of teeth when a parent asks you one of the most basic questions you could ever get as a chiro “so…what do you do?” It’s terrible.

Let’s make sure that from this week on that never happens again to any of us.

Dr Mo to the rescue

I first saw Dr Mo speak in Ireland when we both presented for the annual conference. If you have never had the pleasure (I know most of my Aussie readers just have) I fully recommend it, she is fantastic.

She just released a social media post that resonated so much with the philosophy behind Connected Paediatrics and has solidified my “why do you adjust my child” answer.

She explains that “the adjustment doesn’t correct structure. It gives the nervous system a burst of clean, accurate information and gives the brain an opportunity to reorganize toward greater coherence”

She digs deeper “mechanoreceptors across the joint fire in a concentrated volley toward the central nervous system. That signal reaches the brainstem, gets relayed through the cerebellum, arrives at the sensory cortex, where it is integrated into the body’s current working model”

We don’t treat colic, reflux, rolling issues…we cause an integration event that creates an opportunity for the brain to receive, process and integrate new information. An opportunity to update its map, reconsider its current strategy and organise a different motor output.

That why we “Test – Adjust – Retrain – Retest”

We create the opportunity and then tell the brain what to do with the new information by linking it to active movement.

So what does my answer sound like?

“I love that question, Mrs Jones. I’m not putting anything back into place. The adjustment gives your child’s nervous system new information from an area that has been stiff or guarded. His brain can then use that information to explore a different way of moving, settling or responding.

Because we are helping the nervous system learn, rather than putting something back in place, change is not always a one-session event. The nervous system may need time, movement and repeated opportunities to use the new information. That is why it may take some time.

Hope that helps

Chat Soon

Mike

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info@connectedpaediatrics.com
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Connected Paediatrics – Dr Mike Marinus is a registered paediatric chiropractor treating babies and children and helping chiropractors learn effective paediatric techniques that they can use in their practice