Why You Should Learn Infant CPR?

If you are a parent or caregiver, enrolling in CPR for infants training could end up saving your child’s life. CPR stands for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and its function is to manually do what the heart and lungs are no longer doing on their own. By performing infant CPR correctly, you can help to restore breathing and the flow of oxygenated blood to the child’s vital organs, particularly the brain. Learn more about infant cpr.

Chiropractic Care for Children

Kids can get checked, too. Do kids need regular blood pressure check-ups or regular tests of their blood glucose levels? Probably not - these simple procedures can be done during a child's annual physical. But kids are very active and more frequent chiropractic check-ups are usually a good idea.

Children & Sports Injuries

Kids and Fitness

It's never too early to get your kids into a fitness routine. This is a habit that will last a lifetime.  Without regularly scheduled exercise and sports activities, children will automatically default to watching television, playing on the computer, and playing video games. These pastimes are great for stimulating creativity and developing hand-eye coordination, but contribute nothing to a child's level of fitness.  One out of three American children are overweight, obese, or at risk for being overweight. This appalling public health information indicates a much greater risk of diabetes and heart disease as the child becomes a young adult.  Regular exercise and good nutrition will help a child maintain an appropriate weight and will promote longlasting health benefits.

Kids get hurt all the time. They're running, they're jumping, they're crashing into things. Kids want to have fun, and when they play, they play full-out. 

So, when kids play real sports, stuff happens.1,2 Whether your kid plays soccer, baseball, football, or studies karate, a broken bone, sprained ankle, or twisted knee is just the natural fallout of learning new skills and having a good time. 

The treatment for most childhood sports injuries is straightforward and standard.3 For strains and sprains that involve only mild to moderate swelling and pain, the time-honored RICE protocol is followed - rest, ice, compression, and elevation. 

Pediatric orthopedists get involved when the injury is more severe or when an arm or leg bone is broken. 

But there are other issues, and every parent needs to be aware of these possibilities. In one of the unusual chains of circumstances that make the practice of medicine and the practice of chiropractic so interesting, a physical trauma (like a sports injury) can reveal an underlying serious problem. 

In other words, various disorders of bone may not show themselves in terms of symptoms until a physical trauma makes them apparent. Such problems include metabolic disorders, growth and development problems, and even benign and malignant tumors. 

What would make a parent suspect such an issue? First, if the child's pain seems out-of-proportion to the degree of injury. A mild knee sprain - for example, caused by tripping over second base while trying to stretch a double into a triple - should not be causing significant pain. 

Backpacks and Back Pain

Chiropractic gets two thumbs up! According to data taken from a nationwide telephone survey of more than 400 randomly selected respondents - all of whom had undergone chiropractic treatment - an overwhelming percentage were either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with chiropractic care. 53.5 % of those surveyed were "very satisfied" with their care 29.5 % of those surveyed were "satisfied" with their care Tell your friends and family members about the benefits you've experienced from quality chiropractic care! Source: Gaumer G. "Factors associated with patient satisfaction with chiropractic care"JMPT 2006;29:455-462.

Backpacks are the tote of choice for most school-aged children with two books per class to lug around. In fact, it is reported that between 92% and 94% of schoolchildren carry backpacks. And it appears these contraptions are evolving somewhat with sturdier-looking designs, heavily padded straps and about a thousand small pockets for pencils, house keys and other knick-knacks. But even though the sturdiest backpacks can withstand the pressure, how are the kids taking it?

On average, children load their backpacks to between 10% and 22% of their own body weight. During a study conducted in 2005, researchers set out to quantify the pressure and pain incurred when backpacks are loaded so heavily. For the study, 10 children wore backpacks loaded to 0%, 10%, 20% or 30% of their body weight for 30 seconds to determine the amount of pressure under the backpack's shoulder straps. While wearing the backpacks, the children were also asked to report whether they felt any pain and, if so, the severity of that pain.

According to the results, pressure beneath the shoulder straps was "significantly increased" when the backpack was loaded at only 10% of the child's body weight - on the low end of the reported average. Increased pressure also was associated with an increase in pain, and interestingly the pressure was always greater on the right shoulder than the left shoulder. Over the long term, the researchers noted that uneven backpack loads could alter the curvature of a child's spine and produce back pain. 
The authors of this study compiled their results and offered a few suggestions for parents of school-aged children and their parents:

Car Seat Safety Tips for Parents

The growing awareness of safe driving and state safety laws have alerted the general public and parents to the importance of using car seats for their small children whenever and wherever they are driving. Most states require the use of car seats for children under the age of 4 and weighing less than 40 pounds. However, these safety rules aimed at protecting children may cause serious neck and spinal injuries and can even be deadly if the child car seats are used incorrectly.

How to keep Athletics Kids Healthy and Fit

In today's age of health and fitness, more and more kids are involved in sporting activities. Although being part of a football, soccer or Little League team is an important rite of passage for many kids, parents and their children could be overlooking the importance of proper nutrition and body conditioning needed for preventing injuries on and off the playing field.

"The majority, if not all, sports are good, provided that the child prepares appropriately," says Dr. Carl Heigl, president of the American Chiropractic Association's Council on Sports Injuries and Physical Fitness. "Without proper preparation, playing any sport can turn into a bad experience. There are structural and physical developmental issues that need to be taken into consideration before children undertake certain sports."

How Active Parents Raise Active Kids

Chiropractic Care and Family Health

Parents take care of their children in many ways, providing food and shelter in addition to love and caring. An additional important component of successful child-rearing is is providing good health care. Regular medical check-ups are needed, as are regular chiropractic check-ups. Healthy kids are active kids. Running, jumping, and falling down are all part of a child's normal day. Regular chiropractic check-ups help make sure that a kid's daily dose of physical fun doesn't cause any problems for her bones, muscles, joints, and nerve system. Such subtle problems are often undetected and may lead to pain later on. Chiropractic check-ups are specifically designed to look for these mechanical problems. Detecting and correcting any spinal misalignments or other musculoskeletal issues will go a long way toward helping ensure your child's health and well-being.

We are constantly searching the landscape for heroes. This is not to fill in a missing piece in ourselves, but rather represents an ongoing search for inspiration, stimulation, and motivation. Even those of us who are self-starters need coaches and mentors to cause us to reach ever-higher levels of achievement. In this, we all need support. We all need guidance. We all need fresh perspectives.

Children, in particular, need guidance. Kids need rules. Kids need structure. Usually, a child's parents are her leaders or role models. Other relatives, teachers, peers, and older kids may also fill these roles.

Let's consider parents, relatives, and teachers - the adults in a kid's environment. In America, one-third of all adults are obese. An additional one-third of adults are overweight. Almost one-half of American adults do not do any vigorous physical activity. Three-quarters of adults do not get enough physical activity to meet public health recommendations.

The awful bottom line is that the majority of Americans are out-of-shape and overweight or obese. These adults are the role models for their kids. The result is that one-third of American children are overweight or obese.¹ Juvenile diabetes is an epidemic that is getting worse every year. Type 2 diabetes, previously rare in young people, is now a commonly recognized diagnosis in kids. Hypertension is increasing in prevalence in teenagers. 

We're in the midst of a healthcare disaster. Diabetes and obesity are twin raging epidemics endangering the health and welfare of our nation's young people. In New York City, by the age of 4, there is a one in three chance that the child will be obese. More than 40% of children are at an unhealthy weight at ages 2 and 3.  National statistics are similar.²

Type II diabetes, long known as "adult-onset diabetes", is now being recognized as a significant juvenile disorder. Up to 45% of the children diagnosed with diabetes have the type II form.  And the numbers keep increasing. Additionally, studies demonstrate that almost two-thirds of American kids aged 9 through 13 do not participate in any organized physical activity during non-school hours. Twenty-five percent do not engage in ANY free-time physical activity.

Kids mimic the habits of their parents or other significant adults. If the adults eat cheeseburgers and fries three times a week, so will the kids. If adults don't eat fresh fruits and vegetables, neither will the kids. Also, if kids see their parents putting on more and more weight, they will put on more and more weight. If adults spend no time exercising, neither will the kids.