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

Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto my Manipulations

"It's often an 'us' against 'them' perspective and I don't think it needs to be."
"But when they overstate what is outside of their realm [of medical expertise], quite honestly that borders on the fraudulent."
Dr. Douglas Mack, assistant clinical professor, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario

"There's lots of anecdotal reports and scary memes where they show the obstetrician or midwife pulling the baby out by the neck."
"But there's no legitimate evidence that any appreciable percent of babies suffer subluxations to the spinal bones or any injury that would be amenable to adjustments ... They're just scare tactics."
Dr. Clay Travis Jones, pediatrician, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Boston

"[The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that] parents should be made aware that there is a lack of substantiated evidence for the theory of subluxated vertebrae as the causality for illness in children."
Canadian Paediatric Society statement

"Any attempt to manipulation the immature, cartilaginous spine of a neonate or a small child to correct a putative chiropractic subluxation should be regarded as dangerous and unnecessary."
Samuel Homola, retired chiropractor, journal Bioethics

"The single most worrying thing I find is just this complete disregard for evidence and scientific truth."
"There are a lot of good practitioners [chiropractic] out there, a lot of responsible ones who are very different from their radical counterparts."
Ryan Armstrong, doctor of biomedical engineering

Newborns experience “nerve interference” or a misaligned cervical spine from the birthing process, even when delivered via Cesarean section, and should get treatment as soon as possible, some chiropractors say.   Getty Images

Parents are very vulnerable to suggestion from reputable medical practitioners, since they are utterly focused on the health status and overall well-being of their children, particularly new parents with newborns and infants. And many have been listening to claims some chiropractors make disreputably, promoting spinal manipulation for babies and children. Such adjustments, say these chiropractors, are gentle when applied on newborns; no popping, cracking or crunching.

Parents are assured that a specific vertebra is identified and pressure applied similar to the gentle fingers of a housewife probing a tomato for ripeness. Conventional medicine looks upon these chiropractic inroads into medical science with alarm, viewing the issue as applications of "scare tactics", in claiming that up to 80 percent of newborns require spinal adjustment in treatment of the "trauma" of childbirth.

According to these unscrupulous worry-mongers, "nerve interference" or a misaligned cervical spine results from the process of birthing; a situation that occurs even through Cesarean section. It is imperative, they stress, that corrective treatment take place swiftly to enable chiropractic manipulation to "peel away" the inevitable symptoms of autism as well as aiding toddlers who are non-verbal to overcome whatever constrains their ability to speak.

And while spinal manipulations in adults can be of assistance in alleviating acute low back and neck pain -- according to studies -- some chiropractors extend claims toward childhood; recommending manipulations in children to treat many childhood problems: colic, constipation, ear infections, digestive disorders, hyperactivity and bed wetting. Children, so the claims attest, receiving chiropractic care have "superior" health compared to those who do not.

Furthermore, spinal adjustments can be useful in aiding with learning disorders and dyslexia, along with the alleviation of food and related allergies in children. Dr. Mack, a pediatric allergy specialist, sees the results of gullible parents exposing their children to the false claims of chiropractors who assure parents that manipulation can help straighten their children's misaligned spine or vertebrae, and at the same time help them "outgrow their nut allergies" with treatment.

"They go and try the nuts, and they end up having a severe reaction", he explained.

Hero Images via Getty Images

A warning was issued by the American Academy of Paediatrics, that children exposed to spinal manipulation may be at risk of rare, serious complications. Researchers at University of Alberta in 2007 reviewed 13 published studies to discover 14 injuries to children after receiving chiropractic treatment, nine of them serious, two fatal with one child dying from a brain hemorrhage, the other of a suspected neck fracture. Ten of those injuries attributed to chiropractic care.

In the annals of the Canadian Paediatric Society, a 2007 study revealed that two children, receiving chiropractic treatment, failed to receive medical treatment by a medical doctor, the end result being that they both died as a result of delayed treatment for meningitis. The CPS  emphasizes that "parents should be made aware that there is a lack of substantiated evidence for the theory of subluxated vertebrae as the causality for illness in children".

In Canada, 8,500 licensed chiropractors practise their profession under provincial regulators. The College of Chiropractors of Ontario explains that its members are not constrained from treating patients of any single age, and that "many can and do treat children"; their advertising must meet certain criteria, and must not be misleading or false. Evidently there are some among their members who fail to meet those critical criteria, with little intervention on the part of the regulators.

Petri Oeschger/Getty Images

A chiropractor adjusts a one-month-old baby.