Dr. Lowe describes her vision of providing pediatric chiropractic care — telling us the details of her service to the youngest members of our society, and the road that brought her to this place.

The tagline for the pediatric part of my family chiropractic practice has been, “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.” The adage is... probably true in a number of areas including social, moral, and religious. However, for young children, the proverb is especially true in a physical sense — although we should rephrase it to say, “As the twig is straightened, the tree will grow straight.”
The spine protects the spinal cord which affects the central nervous system, so chiropractic care isn’t just about pain management; it’s about maintaining the nervous system in a healthy state. By the time pain drives adults to seek the service of a chiropractor, typical 40-something patients are losing time from their jobs and have lost days from their lives. Painful misalignments and pinched tissues from old injuries and traumas have reduced their mobility to the point that, in some cases, they are unable to perform with ease simple physical acts. It might take a long time for them to recover their lost physical wellness. I’m on a mission to head off that kind of experience.

Giving Children a Chance for Health
Childhood itself is hard on the bodies of growing children. Government statistics reveal that children fall about 2,500 times before they reach the age of four. After observing the tottering progress of my own two small children, I have to say that the statistic seems low. As the kids grow up, we parents don’t have any idea what they go through on the playgrounds with bangs and bruises that they never report to us. The backyard trampoline is one of the most common ways of stressing and injuring the back.
Of course, when the kids get into soccer, football, and other sports, the risk of putting damaging stress on the back increases dramatically. Cheerleading has turned out to be the most dangerous sport. Skateboarding and other x-sports activities also pose serious potential danger to the health of the back. Young athletes should see someone like me on a routine basis every couple months. Special needs children in particular have problems with their spines. Children with seizure disorders and autism put their spines under stress. The sense of relief and release that comes from an adjustment can provide such children with a positive emotional resource.

All those tumbles and pratfalls during childhood and the teen years often create undetected pressures and misalignments that can exert a cumulative effect on growing bodies, putting pressure on spines and nervous systems that is manageable during the growing years but, if not corrected, often contains seeds that during adulthood will eventually sprout in the form of debilitating aches and pains.
One of my purposes has been to assist children in getting started right so that they can march into middle age and beyond without pain, discomfort, and range-of-motion problems. Because children haven’t yet collected an ancient set of stresses, scars, and other damage to their bodies, it is easy to work with them; they respond well to treatment.
Trauma, of course, is the culprit behind a lot of the physical problems that our bodies are subjected to. The wrenching and twisting pressures of birth provide the most intense trauma that most of us will ever experience. Birth is certainly a miracle, but it is a miracle that exacts a serious toll from some newborns. A newborn baby’s spine is in a transitional cartilage state — the bones are not yet fully formed, but I can detect the presence of tensions and stress in associated muscles and other soft tissues. Some fussy newborns who are having problems sleeping and nursing are simply experiencing physical pain or pressure. They aren’t able to describe their pain, but it is making them uncomfortable. Sometimes I can see their little neck and head bent to one side or the other because the birth trauma has affected their alignment.

My Chiropractic Practice
The most satisfying thing in my practice is checking babies for areas of pressure, misalignments, and other imperfections when they are as young as a day old. I’m often overwhelmed by the honor involved in having parents hand their newborn children over to me. Taking that small bundle into my arms is always a moving and amazing moment, that has an intensity that often moves me to tears. It is gratifying when I locate some point of stress and tension in a newborn baby and make a chiropractic adjustment that is appropriate for the infant. In many cases I have seen the baby just sort of melt and relax. If the babies possessed the ability to speak at such times, they would say, “Thank goodness you found that spot; that feels so much better!”
I have a lot of experience and training when it comes to working with children and a gift of being able to create a special bond with children of all ages — from mewling infants to post-pubescent adolescents. They easily learn to trust me.