Should my child see a chiropractor? An honest answer for parents.
Infants through teenagers, and what changes at each age. For mechanical problems — yes, and it helps. For colic, ear infections or immunity — no, and any clinic claiming otherwise is telling you something the evidence does not support.
Parents ask this one carefully, and they should. Something being fine for an adult back does not automatically make it fine for a growing one, and the honest answer depends almost entirely on the age of the child and what is actually wrong. Here is where chiropractic genuinely helps a child or a teenager, where it does not, the claims that should make you walk out, and when the right call is your pediatrician rather than us.
Start here: what is actually hurting, and for how long?
Most of what brings kids and teens to us is mechanical — a body that is growing fast, sitting badly, carrying too much, or doing one sport year-round. That includes an aching upper back and neck from all-day screens, shoulder and back pain from a loaded backpack, and the front-of-knee or heel pain that shows up when a young athlete’s training jumps in a week.
Those are ordinary loading problems, they respond well to hands-on care and corrective exercise, and they are worth addressing rather than waiting out. Growing bodies adapt quickly in both directions.
What we do and do not treat in children
Dr. Andersen sees children of all ages, from infants through teenagers. What that means in practice changes enormously with age. With a teenager it looks like a scaled-down version of adult care. With an infant it is gentle assessment of how the body is moving — whether a baby turns the head as easily to one side as the other, whether there is a positional preference worth flagging — and it is co-managed with your pediatrician rather than instead of them.
Being equally plain about the other side: there is a corner of the profession that markets chiropractic to parents for colic, reflux, ear infections, bedwetting, immune function, allergies or behavioural conditions. The evidence for those claims does not support them, and we do not make them. If a clinic tells you an adjustment will settle your baby’s reflux or reduce ear infections, that is your signal to leave. Your pediatrician manages those conditions, and anything that is a medical question stays a medical question no matter how young the patient is.
A good children’s clinic is defined as much by what it refuses to claim as by what it treats.
Is chiropractic safe for kids?
For the ordinary mechanical complaints above, gentle care in a growing spine is widely considered safe and looks nothing like the adult version. The force used is a fraction of it — with an infant, closer to the pressure you would use to test a ripe tomato than anything you would recognise as an adjustment — technique is adapted to the age and size of the child, and a good visit involves more assessment and coaching than treatment. For the fuller picture, including the neck question adults usually mean when they ask, our honest look at chiropractic safety covers the evidence properly.
Two things we hold to with young patients. We do not put children on open-ended visit plans — a child with a mechanical complaint should be measurably better in a small number of visits or be reassessed. And a child’s pain that has no mechanical explanation gets referred, not treated.
When to see a pediatrician first, not a chiropractor
Some presentations belong with a physician before anyone touches them. Take your child to their pediatrician, or to urgent care, for:
- Pain that wakes them at night or is present at rest rather than with movement.
- Fever, unexplained weight loss, or feeling generally unwell alongside the pain.
- A limp, or refusal to use a limb, particularly in a younger child.
- Pain following a real fall or collision where a fracture is possible.
- Numbness, weakness, or changes in bladder or bowel control.
- A rapidly changing spinal curve during a growth spurt — scoliosis monitoring is a physician’s call, and we co-manage rather than lead it.
We screen for all of the above at the first visit and say so plainly when something is not ours.
The complaints we see most in school-age kids and teens
Once a child is in school, the pattern shifts from how they are developing to what they are doing all day:
- Neck and upper back pain from screens. The most common thing we see in this age group — more in text neck in kids and teens.
- Backpack shoulder and back pain. Usually a weight and wearing problem, not a spine problem: how heavy is too heavy.
- Youth sports overuse. Knee, heel and shoulder pain that appears when training ramps — here is when a young athlete’s pain needs evaluating instead of playing through, and how to ramp into a season without the injury.
- Homework and study posture. Often solved at the desk rather than on the table: the setup that saves a growing neck.
Bring the backpack, the cleats, or a photo of the desk setup to the first visit — for a young patient, the fix is often in the equipment and the loading rather than on the treatment table. The 40-minute assessment is $149 and follow-ups are $60, posted up front.
What a first visit looks like for a young patient
Forty minutes, most of it spent watching how your child actually moves rather than treating. A parent stays in the room throughout. We explain what we find in plain language to both of you, and if the answer is “this is a training-load problem, change these two things and it settles,” that is the answer — not a course of care. Where hands-on work is warranted it is gentle, and it sits alongside the corrective exercise side that does the durable work. You can see the full service list and pricing before booking.
Not sure whether it needs a chiropractor or a pediatrician? Start with the assessment and we will tell you honestly.
Frequently asked questions
- Is chiropractic safe for children?
- For the ordinary mechanical complaints of a growing body, gentle care is widely considered safe and looks nothing like the adult version. The force used is a fraction of it and scales down with the child — with an infant it is closer to the pressure you would use to test a ripe tomato than anything you would recognise as an adjustment. A good visit is mostly assessment and coaching rather than treatment, and anything without a mechanical explanation gets referred to a pediatrician rather than treated.
- Can a chiropractor help my baby's colic or ear infections?
- No, and we would encourage you to be wary of any clinic that says otherwise. The evidence does not support chiropractic treatment for colic, reflux, ear infections, bedwetting, immune function, allergies or behavioural conditions, and those are managed by your pediatrician. Dr. Andersen does see infants, but for mechanical questions — how freely a baby turns their head, whether there is a positional preference worth flagging — assessed gently and co-managed with your pediatrician rather than in place of them.
- What age can a child see a chiropractor?
- Dr. Andersen sees children of all ages, from infants through teenagers, though what a visit involves changes enormously across that range. With an infant it is gentle assessment of how the body moves; with a teenager it resembles a scaled-down version of adult care. The more useful question than age is what is actually hurting and for how long. Pain that wakes a child at night, comes with fever or weight loss, or follows a significant fall belongs with a pediatrician first, at any age.
- How many visits will my child need?
- Fewer than an adult with the same complaint, in most cases — growing bodies adapt quickly. A child with a straightforward mechanical problem should be measurably better within a small number of visits or be reassessed, and we do not put children on open-ended visit plans. Sometimes the honest answer at the first visit is that it is a training-load or equipment problem, in which case you get two things to change rather than a course of care.
