 For some parents and infants, breastfeeding can be a beautiful and relatively seamless experience. For others, it can feel overwhelming. Every breastfeeding journey is unique. No one can fully prepare a mother, baby, or father for the experience, but there are ways to make it easier and more comfortable.
When a baby struggles to latch properly, develops colic from a shallow latch, or makes clicking and gulping sounds while feeding, breastfeeding can quickly become stressful. Mothers may experience nipple pain, blistering, or bleeding. Parents, especially the breastfeeding mother, often have back and neck pain sometimes from the birth process, but definitely from the hours spent feeding and looking down at their baby, and the accumulative sleepless nights. Many families on this journey need support and assistance. Possible Causes of Breastfeeding Issues Where Chiropractic May Help Biomechanical restrictions affecting latch and suck Babies can be born with restrictions, such as tongue ties, or develop musculoskeletal tightness from the birthing process or their position in utero (for example, breech). Tight neck muscles, cranial asymmetries, andmovement can create tension around the jaw and tongue. This may change the baby’s mouth position, tongue mobility, or head posture, making it harder to establish a deep latch, a good lip seal, and a coordinated suck. Gentle manual therapy and mobilisation by a chiropractor trained in paediatrics aims to restore normal movement, helping the infant achieve a more effective latch. Several clinical case series describe improvement in feeding after this type of care. Maternal posture and musculoskeletal pain New parents, especially breastfeeding mothers, spend hours in static or awkward positions feeding and carrying their baby. Neck, shoulder, and back pain can make it harder to position the baby comfortably and to sustain feeds for long enough. Poor positioning can in turn affect milk transfer and overall breastfeeding success. Chiropractic care can include gentle manual therapy, postural advice, and ergonomic adjustments to reduce pain and help improve feeding positions. Even professional lactation bodies recognise that musculoskeletal pain and poor biomechanics can contribute to breastfeeding difficulties. Working Together Chiropractic care is not a recommended stand-alone solution. The best outcomes often come when it is combined with support from a skilled lactation consultant (IBCLC) and maternal health professionals. With the guidance of these providers, gentle care from a paediatric-trained chiropractor can be one of the supportive options for families experiencing feeding challenges. Research into chiropractic and breastfeeding is still limited. Most of the available studies are case reports, case series, or very small trials. While many report improvements in breastfeeding (often between 70% and 100% of cases after just a few visits), the research has limitations and more high-quality studies are needed. If you are experiencing challenges with breastfeeding, or discomfort and pain when feeding, please reach out. At Sprouting Health Chiropractic, we are here to support you and your family on your breastfeeding journey. References
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 Joint pain or injury is common. Neck pain, back pain, hip, shoulder, elbow or knee pain is annoying! This is an important article that could make the world of difference to you if you have any of this.
Even elite athletes have these same issues. “Muscle imbalances exist in a wide range of athletes performing at the elite level and may be related to injury occurrence”. Many patients go from one Dr or specialist to another without resolution of their musculoskeletal complaint. Sometimes underlying these physical problems are muscle imbalances. When you have joint pain you feel down and frustrated, it is hard to be in the moment, to be 100% present and to truly enjoy life. It is hard to know what to do, there seems to be many options…. When you see someone who lives and breathes treating muscle imbalance every day, someone who is fanatical and is energised every single time they get a win for their patients, you’ll finally be in the right hands so that you can get the care you deserve, get back to loving your life of activity and being more “you”. If you’ve ever wanted to move towards living your life pain free then keep reading, this information might just change your life. The muscles we are talking about here are skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscles work because the brain and nervous system control them; as such, it should be referred to as a neuromuscular system, which includes the brain and spinal cord, the muscles, and the nerves that connect them. Basically muscles can range from very loose muscles that are very weak with no perceivable contraction, to the other extreme of hypertonic or very tight muscles. As an example, in the sitting position put your hands around your thigh muscle (upper leg about a hands width above your knee), contract your thigh by straightening your leg (make sure to leave the foot on the ground, simply slide it along) and feel the top muscle (quads) contract, at the same time the bottom muscle (hamstrings) will relax. If you do the opposite the hamstrings will contract and the quads will relax. If these muscles did not behave in this way it would be a disaster. Imagine if the top muscle held on while the bottom muscle tried to contract. The joint could tear, be compressed or may not move at all. Now imagine that when we bend or walk the thousands of nerve signals and muscle contractions that have to occur in precisely the right sequence and force that are imperative for proper function. A muscle that stays too relaxed is referred to as abnormal inhibition and sometimes called “weak” (although this is not true weakness, which refers to the lack of power). In most cases, this inhibition causes an opposite muscle to become too tight, a condition called abnormal facilitation. Together, these abnormal muscles (muscle imbalance) can adversely affect the joint(s) they control, the tendons they’re attached to, and other muscles, ligaments, bones, and body areas (such as the pelvic, spine, or head) all over. This will also cause an imbalance in posture and an irregular gait and often eventually pain. Studies demonstrate that trunk eccentric/concentric and flexion/extension strength imbalances may be associated to episodes or chronic prevalence of LBP. At Sprouting Health, we work out muscle imbalance through postural observation, and then testing individually around 80 muscles on your body. We also look at excess bulking or reduction in size of a muscle from one side of the body to another. Manual muscle testing involves physically evaluating individual muscles. This is accomplished by first positioning an arm, leg, or other body part associated with a particular muscle’s action. In this position, the practitioner applies force against the patient’s force from that particular muscle. Weakness due to abnormal inhibition may exist if the resistive force cannot properly be maintained, or sometimes if there is excessive pain. Comparing before and after treatment measurements can be very useful to determine whether improvements are being made and which therapies may be most successful. Properly done, manual muscle testing can help differentiate between neuromuscular imbalance, and exercise imbalance. If any of this relates to you then you’ll be glad to learn that we would love to see if we can help you. We promise not to waste your time or money!  Recent findings suggest that nervous system development and brain growth may be linked with movement and sensory input. The findings suggest that “mobility restrictions or insufficient sensory stimuli impact the production of new brain cells and brain development… “
Two recent studies (1, 2), exploring neurogenesis in the presence and absence of either movement restriction or visual restriction, were performed in zebrafish – a popular and well-known choice for modeling human biology in a controlled research setting. While these findings have not yet been tested in humans, they clearly suggest the possibility that movement restrictions in the postnatal stage may be critical to brain development in vertebrates including humans. These two new papers suggest that should motor and sensory input be suboptimal in the early developmental stage, then the process of neurodevelopment as a whole is diminished and the authors show evidence that if nerve and brain development is compromised, the resultant deficit may never be overcome (1, 2). Let’s consider a study by Keil and Fludder that described reduced range of motion present at birth (3). In this study, reduced range of motion was found in: 76.1% of infants born vaginally without intervention 75% of infants delivered with forceps 88.9% of vacuum-assisted deliveries 82.3% of infants born via caesarean section While the sample may be slightly skewed given it was taken from a paediatric chiropractic clinic, it certainly shows that there is a population that suffers from reduced range of motion immediately following birth. Further, plagiocephaly, or flat head syndrome, is found in up to 46.6% of infants (according to a 2013 estimate) and this itself may result in motion restriction or motion asymmetry (4). Research conducted by Dr. Heidi Haavik, Dr. Kelly Holt and the New Zealand College of Chiropractic has illustrated over and over again that sensorimotor integration (brain processing of movement) is clearly and positively impacted by the chiropractic adjustment (5). If you or especially your Child has reduced movement it is worth getting checked out.
 When we think about our senses, we think of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. We have also talked about the importance of our vestibular (sense of balance) and proprioceptive systems. Believe it or not, we actually have another sense, interoception. Interoception can be broadly defined as the sense of signals originating within the body, and is therefore, critical for our sense of embodiment, motivation and well-being. (1)
So, in short, this is the sense that helps us identify things like when we are hungry, thirsty or go to the toilet. And just like our other senses, our interoceptive sense can be high or low. What could it look like in our kids if they are hypersensitive to their internal senses? It may be the child that is having trouble concentrating in the class room because they are preoccupied with what is going on inside them. This can lead physical or emotional overreactions due to input from our interoceptive system into our emotional centres of the brain. (2-3) At the other end of the spectrum, we can see kid that have an under-reactivity to their interoceptive sense, and they do not get the internal information about what is going on in their body. As a result, they may miss the clue to go to the toilet, or going may make them feel unwell so that they do not want to go. This in turn will lead to a child struggling to keep on top of their emotional well-being. (2-3) If you would like to learn more about the internal signals or how we help manage these internal signals make an appointment with one of our Drs.
 We are often asked - “Are there any dangers of pain medication?”.
Acetaminophen is a common medication used for relieving a variety of discomforts such as: back pain, mild to moderate pain from headaches, cramping from menstrual periods, muscle aches, arthritis, tendonitis, toothaches, colds, flu, sore throats and it can also be used to reduce fever. The product is readily available over-the-counter (OTC). More than 600 common prescription and over-the-counter medications contain acetaminophen as an active ingredient. It has become so mainstream that many people don’t realize that acetaminophen is responsible for over 56,000 emergency department visits annually in the U.S. and is the most common cause of acute liver failure in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Toxicity caused by acetaminophen use is also the second most common cause of liver worldwide. Individuals occasionally utilizing OTC acetaminophen as directed for something like an infrequent headache or menstrual cramps is not the concern as long as consumption is kept at or below the recommended dosage for a very short period of time. Ongoing and multiple daily doses trying to mask acute or chronic pain bring much higher risks for overconsumption and damage. With the harm and risks associated with prescription and OTC painkillers, finding drug-free natural solutions to address pain are more important than ever. Chiropractic care is working on the forefront of this issue and has had a long history of effective nonpharmacological care for back pain, headaches, sprain/strain injury and a variety of other conditions. Doctors of chiropractic (DCs) understand neuromusculoskeletal pain, optimizing the function of the joints and supporting the surrounding soft tissues with a natural approach to help patients minimize the need for harmful analgesics. (1) There is also substantial epidemiological evidence in adults and children that acetaminophen use is associated with asthma symptoms (2,3). There is also a considerable body of evidence that supports a modest but consistent association of acetaminophen use in pregnancy and early infancy with asthma in later childhood. (3) If you would like help with a niggling injury or you are not satisfied with the results you are getting contact us here at Sprouting health and we would love to see if we can help you. It’s our passion! References
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AuthorBlogs by the team at Sprouting Health Archives
January 2026
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