Childhood Injuries

Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, I fell down and hurt my arm.

Is it bleeding Leah? No, but I need a band aid. Lets see if I could find you one. Could I have the one with the bear on it? There you go, does it feel better now? Yes, I'm going swinging in the back yard! Bye!

Children are extremely resilient in many ways. Often times their little bumps, scrapes and complaints are nothing more than attention getters, but sometimes childhood injuries may predispose children to future problems.

Children have a much more efficient system compared to adults, since they are in a active growth cycle, and heal at a quicker rate. This is a blessing in many cases, but may also create problems.

Often times a patient will have a fall or accident in childhood when developing joints are impressionable and vulnerable to injury. It is not uncommon for this to manifest itself in the form of future injuries even though little discomfort was experienced at the initial injury.

Since children heal at a much quicker rate, if a child falls for example and his spine is out of alignment, the spine may heal in the "uncorrected position" and predispose them to a future injury.

A day doesn't go by in my office without patients asking questions such as; "I woke up today with severe low back pain and couldn't get out of bed."...... "I bent over to pick up groceries out of the back of the car and felt a sharp pain in my low back."..... How did I get this?

We know that pain syndromes often have remnants of old injuries and can sometimes be traced back to childhood. To minimize this phenomenon, we dedicate the first Saturday of each month in our office as "kids day". On this day, we give children 13 years and under, free check ups and adjustments to make sure their joints are in good alignment. This enables children to get periodic check-ups, helps them heal and grow in the right direction and minimizes future problems.

If you have a question that you would like Dr. Caraotta or Dr. Bowman to address in their column, you could send your question to their office at 4921 E. State Street, Rockford, IL. 61108 or call your question in at Caraotta Chiropractic Orthopedics,(815)398-4004 and ask to speak with one of the doctors.