Parents have you ever wondered why the rate of chronic illness in children has sky rocketed in our kids over the past generations to an enormous and horrific level?

• ADHD & behavior problems in kids range between 10-15% and climbing rapidly

• Anxiety in kids was 11.6% five years ago, and is currently at 20.5%

• Depression was 8.5% and has now more than doubled to 25.2%

• Mental illness is at an all time high and now effects 1 and 6 kids.

• Autism rates have increased 241% since 2000 ( yes read that again), and now effect 1 in 44kids.

The Perfect Storm is not a medical diagnosis, but rather how sensory stuck, overwhelmed kids get to where they are. Something that is always clear in genetics and epidemiology is that sequence matters, and it usually the key to the puzzle. As pediatric chiropractors we are trained to find cause, and one thing we found in over 90% of our stuck kiddos is that it started long before they were teh sensory overwhelmed, seven year old. The Perfect Stormencompasses kids from birth to adult hood. Most kids that are stuck in the Storm are dealing with severe ASD, anxiety/depression, constant illness and things like asthma/allergies that land them at the doctors office multiple times a month, autoimmune challenges, OCD, epilepsy, Aspergers, and Sensory Processing disorder … So lets take a look at the Perfect Storm as a whole, and learn why your kiddo did not “grow out of it”.

Three main “kick starters” to the Perfect Storm

• Maternal Stress, infertility challenges

• Birth Intervention and Trauma ( C-section, Forceps, Vacuum extraction)

• Early use of Medications + Antibiotics text goes here

After the stressful and traumatic start to our children’s life’s the begin to progress into these next 5 phases of stress, so what were often told they “will grow out of” ends up being a different season of stress that our kids grow into.

1. Colicky, constipated newborn, difficulty nursing/feeding, head rotation challenges, torticollis, and plagiocephaly.

2. Constantly sick, ear infected, cant sleep, on their fifth antibiotic in six months challenged toddler. This is also where the behavioral, and autoimmune challenges begin showing up (18mo-4 years)

3. Wound up, sensory overwhelmed, hyperactive, impulse, emotionally “stuck”child.

4. Now where most parents begin to find it, we get this kid that has been getting their behind whooped for their whole life, what seems to be one thing after another and we get to school. This is when we start seeing the sensory overload really take shape. When we start getting our diagnosis of ASD, anxiety, ON TOP of what they are already facing with immune challenges and dysautonomia.

5. Exhausted, angry, depressed teen.

By focusing each and every adjustment on rebalancing and restoring function to the “Air Traffic Control”  system, and stimulating the parasympathetic (rest, digest, heal, grow) part of your child’s nervous system, we begin start to see changes in the basis of pediatric health and brain development functions such as — sleep , digestion , immune function, and motor (movement) tone and function.

The first phase of the Intensive Program we work to get the “basics” or what we call neurological soft signs of health back online. These core health elements such as sleep, digestion, and movement have often been entirely overlooked by both traditional medical doctors and other functional or holistic doctors as well. These functions are the basis and main regulatory responsibility of the Autonomic Nervous System.

You can’t heal the gut, improve the immune system, or get motor tone and coordination back online if you don’t first work on the central and autonomic nervous system! AKA the thing that controls all the other things!

Simply put, the bones of the skull, upper neck, and entire spine are vastly more important than most know. They are not just there for structure, they are there to house and protect the most important aspect of our health — the central and autonomic nervous system. 

When these areas are physically injured and altered during the birth process, their function is altered from the very first moments of life on. We always say we start life “down 72-0 in the first quarter”. 

Those vital functions that this area is in charge of include: 

• Control nerves and muscles responsible for breastfeeding  

• Control nerves and muscles responsible for digestion  

• Control nerves and muscles responsible for draining fluid from the ears, sinuses, etc. 

• Control and regulate our immune system and inflammatory cascade 

• Control and regulate all sensory processing — eyes, auditory, smell, touch, etc. 

• Control and regulate our motor development, milestones, tone, balance, coordination, etc. 

• Control speech development and function 

• Control and regulate all initial brain communication and coordination — social, emotional, behavioral, memory, decision-making, etc. 

What is the one crucial nerve that connects and tethers all those vital functions together? Something called the Vagus Nerve. 

To simplify all of this for you, once that brainstem area is injured, it sets in motion a condition that truly will explain so many of your child’s struggles all in one place — dysautonomia.

While many children in the Perfect Storm category have had a medical neurological exam, traditionally those only look for obvious pathology and diagnosis – they do not actually measure and determine true neurological function, autonomic and vagal tone, or the real key to pediatric brain development – neuromuscular tone, symmetry, and pattern. 

These scans are the foundational element of our Perfect Storm Care Program and really any case at Social House Chiropractic and it allows us to fully customize and personalize the adjustments for your child, as well as continuously track and monitor change and improvement as care progresses! We Scan so we can track and measure.

At their Report of Findings parents often feel like the missing piece of the puzzle has just been found. It is where we are able to connect the dots to what is subjectively going on with your child to what we can measure in their nervous system.