Infant with Neurological Problems Who Could Not Lift Head Helped by Chiropractic

The third quarter of 2024 issue of the Asian Pacific Chiropractic Journal documented a case study showing chiropractic helping an infant who could not lift her head up, retained primitive reflexes, and was behind in developmental benchmarks.

According to the National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, "Primitive reflexes are involuntary motor responses originating in the brainstem present after birth in early child development that facilitate survival. Several reflexes are important in the assessment of newborns and young infants." Many of these reflexes should disappear within a short time after birth. When certain reflexes remain present longer than normal, it could be an indication of neurological and developmental issues.

In this case, a 15-week-old infant girl was brought to the chiropractor by her parents. They described their infant daughter by saying that she was "not adapting well to life outside the womb." The infant's muscle tone was below normal. She could barely lift her head up and had trouble responding to caregivers. The infant also looked lethargic and did not respond well to stimuli.

The history revealed that the infant was born prematurely at 36 weeks into the pregnancy. After her birth, she favored her head to one side which created issues with tummy time and breast feeding as well as creating a problem with head asymmetry.

A chiropractic examination confirmed the weakness of the muscle tone and reported that the infant was approximately 7 weeks behind on normal developmental milestones. Multiple subluxations were determined to be present that were affecting the child's nervous system. Appropriate to age, size, and weakness, specific chiropractic adjustments were started initially at the rate of three times per week.

The study reports that as care continued and assessments were performed, the parents initially reported that their infant's sleeping pattern and quality had improved. They also noted an improvement in the girl's head shape. The parents also reported an improvement in their daughter's bowel function and noted that she had become much more active.

As chiropractic care continued, the infant girl's parents continued to notice improvements in every area of their daughter's life including posture, strengths and motor skills. At one point, the study records that they parents mentioned that they were "absolutely blown away by the changes" and could not believe that this was the same child compared to before chiropractic care.

In the discussion portion of this study, the authors gave an overview of this case and the important role of chiropractic care for this baby, "This case illustrates the profound impact of Chiropractic care in supporting the developing nervous systems of infants, even those who are failing to thrive. Here, we have a child whose trajectory could have been completely different. With the lack of responsiveness the patient showed at the start, it is possible that, without Chiropractic care, she may not have been able to adapt and function at her best."