Ready To Fly! – No More Ear Pain
Seb is a 9 year-old boy who dreaded flying due to the extreme pain in his ears on take off and landing. As a baby he suffered badly with his ears, having many ear infections and courses of antibiotics. After each course of antibiotics, the earache came back and in the end at 18 months, the doctor said there was no alternative but to fit grommets. He ended up with three sets of grommets during his infancy. Seb also had continuous coughs and colds.
It turned out that after a suction-assisted birth, due to the baby being stuck in the birth canal, baby Seb used to lie with his head bent to one side. Mum had also had a lot of low back pain during her pregnancy.
Seb’s mother brought him along to me after talking with a couple of chiropractors and learning that the spine can play a role in many different health issues. She had tried many doctors with no solutions working and was desperate to find a solution to her son’s agony, which was affecting the whole family. Air flights had been cut to a minimum because nobody wanted to put a child through that terrible pain, but now living in Dubai, it was essential that the family could fly home to see relatives.
After collecting the details of Seb’s health it became apparent that he had most probably been suffering from some spinal misalignments from birth.
- Back pain during pregnancy may have meant that mum’s pelvis was twisted and the in-utero torsion may have meant that Seb was already lacking space. His neck may have been bent to one side for the latter part of the pregnancy.
- The difficult birth may have put more strain on the neck and caused the first vertebra to remain misaligned.
- Babies with repetitive ear infections often also have cervical misalignment, which can affect the ears and it has also been found that adjusting the neck, boosts the function of the immune system.
- Colds and coughs are also related to poor immunity.
It was a pity nobody had informed Seb’s mum earlier about chiropractic for babies. Seb probably had KISS syndrome, which is the abbreviation for kinematic imbalances of the sub-occipital spine. In layman’s terms this is simply a misalignment of the upper neck bones. As you can see from this true story, it can have far reaching effects, which may be different in each child.
Examination of Seb’s neck and back revealed immediately that he had his atlas, the first bone of the spine below the skull, situated more to the left than to the right and also the spinal joints were not moving very well. He did have some other postural differences in his whole spine as well, but the upper neck situation was the most urgent to deal with.
A most willing patient, anxious himself to find a solution to this painful and limiting problem, Seb agreed to a chiropractic adjustment. He was a bit surprised at the funny noise it made, but felt fine after the treatment. I did four more treatments over a period of 2 weeks followed by one treatment just before his next flight. I couldn’t wait to hear how it went.
Today he came back very happy. His flight had gone well with no pain for the first time, on take off and landing and now the whole family can plan their air travel with confidence.
I just treated his spine with chiropractic adjustments and was very happy that it resolved the problem. Now we are working on his posture and he will without a doubt grow up with less health problems than he would have done, had he never seen a chiropractor. His mum is now busy spreading the news and advising both pregnant mums and new mums to get themselves and their babies checked, especially if there is a problem.
I have often seen adults with upper neck problems, which were most probably present from birth. They can of course be helped, but the earlier a problem is corrected, the less health problems need to be suffered. You can read about other children’s problems in my past articles. Call the clinic if you would like to be checked or have your baby or child checked for any spinal problems which may be affecting their general health.
Dr. Pamela Leader
www.chiropracticdubai.com
