Predatory Chiropractic : Gullible Parents

"[Over 80 percent of newborns will require a spinal adjustment after birth; physical pressures applied during chiropractic adjustments of babies] are not capable of causing fractures or dislocations of the spine and extremities of newborns and infants."
International Chiropractic Pediatric Association

"Training time is irrelevant; babies do not need to be adjusted and they should not have their spines manipulated."
"For all conditions that chiropractors claim to treat in infants, there is no known physiological mechanism to explain how spinal manipulations would benefit."
"Not only is it [pediatric spinal manipulation] not recognized by any other health profession, but even contemporary chiropractors recognize that it is pseudo-science from the profession's past." 
"These programs are effectively teaching chiropractors how to ... take advantage of parents who may need legitimate medical care for their children."
Ryan Armstrong, biomedical engineer

"There is no current clinical guideline, or peer-reviewed publication to guide chiropractors with respect to the care of infants and young children, and the use of spinal manipulation in particular."
Chiropractic Board of Australia

"The OCA [Ontario Chiropractic Association] position is that infants should be under the care of a pediatrician, family doctor or nurse practitioner, and we support chiropractors collaborating and communicating with an infant's entire health care provider."
Miguel Pachero, spokesman, Ontario Chiropractic Association 

A newborn is held upside down. Footage shows a Melbourne chiropractor treating a baby. Photograph: Constance Bannister Corp/Getty

Armand Rossi, a chiropractor who practices in South Carolina and who promotes the theory that newborns acquire "vertebral subluxations" of the spine during birth -- irrespective of natural delivery or caesarean section -- is the featured speaker at a weekend seminar one of which is scheduled for Toronto, another for Ottawa to take place in November at which two-day, 12-hour courses will teach chiropractors how to 'unblock' nervous system "interference" ostensibly caused by the trauma of passing through the birth canal causes.

The scheduled event has not been greeted as a welcome situation by the Canadian medical community; doctors and consumer health advocates consider the very idea of newborns requiring misaligned vertebrae adjustments at birth as alarming in its potential for harm. The fact being that there is no scientific evidence to support the practise, to begin with. "Charlatans. This hurts babies", responded Dr Moira Stilwell, a former MLA from British Columbia.

"Imagine one of us intubating/ventilating, inserting a chest tube, and central lines in kiddos with a two-day demonstration", responded Ontario pediatrician Dr. Rick MacDonald. According to the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, during childbirth pulling, twisting forceps or suction has the potential to cause stress on a baby's spine, such that it becomes imperative that "subluxations" be identified and corrected, the sooner the better for the health of the baby to ensure that there be no interruption of "vital energy" flows between brain and body.

Not to be alarmed over the procedure, the ICPA, assures parents; no possible harm will befall their infants at the hands of chiropractors who apply gentle pressure. Pressure identical to probing fingers carefully determining the ripeness say, of a tomato. According to Armand Rossi, in a posting to YouTube early this year, newborns with subluxations should be seen daily or every other day "whatever you need to, until they hold the adjustment".

Chiropractor spinal treatment on baby sparked a probe and reignited calls to outlaw infant chiropractic treatments. Still from video   news.com.au

On websites, chiropractors are known to point out that all manner of chronic conditions including colic,  constipation, ear infections, digestive disorders, ADHD, food and other allergies and dyslexia are readily treated with spinal adjustments. Some chiropractors now refer to themselves as pediatric specialists, a medical specialty for which an appropriate certified medical degree is required along with a residency program -- qualifications that no chiropractors have achieved, in actual fact.

There is no approval, endorsement or sponsorship of any continuing education programs by the College of Chiropractors of Ontario, apart from those the college itself is responsible for. Regulators in Australia ban chiropractors from manipulating babies' spines in the wake of videos of a chiropractor holding a newborn by its heels upside down, applying spinal and skull pressure.

“Pediatric Chiropractic Care: The Subluxation Question and Referral Risk”
Chiropractors commonly treat children for a variety of ailments by manipulating the spine to correct a “vertebral subluxation” or a “vertebral subluxation complex” alleged to be a cause of disease. Such treatment might begin soon after a child is born. Both major American chiropractic associations─the International Chiropractic Association and the American Chiropractic Association─support chiropractic care for children, care that includes subluxation correction as a treatment or preventive measure. I do not know of any credible evidence to support chiropractic subluxation theory. Any attempt to manipulate the immature, cartilaginous spine of a neonate or a small child to correct a putative chiropractic subluxation should be regarded as dangerous and unnecessary. Referral of a child to a chiropractor for such treatment should not be considered lest a bad outcome harms the child or leads to a charge of negligence or malpractice.
Sam Homola, chiropractor, retired, journal Bioethics