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Children & Teenagers
General Health
Immune - When we are first born, and for the first 6 months to 2 years of life, our immune system is still developing and we depend on the immune responses we learn from our mother's milk. During this time we share our mother's antigen/antibody responses to germs and parasites, foods, pollens, and so forth. As our own immune system matures, we retain and build on these responses. This is part of why certain food preferences and sensitivities may be passed down through families.
Unlike adults, children are less able to modulate their immune responses to antigens so it becomes an "all or nothing" response. Where Mom may get congested or phlegmy in response to antigenic foods like cow's milk, infants and children may get repeated ear infections, respiratory and digestive problems, rashes or croup.
Children's immune systems are also pretty robust. If the offending substances are eliminated and appropriate nutrients are provided, they tend to right themselves quickly.
The three most common causes of childhood immune problems in clued:
1. Lack of mother's milk and inability to nurse results in reliance on "formulas" which lack the necessary human antigen/antibody complexes and the immune system is slower to develop
2. Pediatricians routinely overprescribe and misprescribe antibiotics and then fail to rehabilitate the child's developing digestive, immune and endocrine systems after the drugs have wrought their effects upon them.
3. Children eat and are exposed to things which cause them chronic and sometimes severe inflammatory responses and other immune system disturbances. Parents are often unaware that some 'good foods' may not be good for their particular child.
Digestion - Of all the systems affecting healthy development, digestion is probably the single most important. Our digestive system is where we extract micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids) from our foods, separate them from the chaff, absorb the micronutrients, and send the rest on for detoxification and elimination.
If you think about yourself as a doughnut, with the digestive tube from mouth to anus as the doughnut hole, the digestive system is where we choose what of the outside world to invite into our inside world. No wonder then that the greatest parts of the immune and detoxification systems are either located in, or directly involved in, the digestive system.
Children's digestive system problems can come from several sources: Emotional stress, food and environmental sensitivities, drug and vaccine effects including toxicities and flora disturbances, germs and parasites, nutrient imbalances, developmental issues, etc.
From autism and ADHD to Tourettes and OCD, whenever dealing with developmental learning and behavioral disorders, the first place to look for problems is usually the digestive system. This is also the prime area of concern with allergies and asthma, colic, recurrent infections (especially earaches), constipation and diarrhea, headaches and sleep disturbances, and rashes, itching, and skin infections.
Healing the digestive system requires that we first identify, then correct the sources of inflammation, restore the function and pH of the stomach, the normal permeability and flora of the small intestine, and the symphony of activities involving the liver, gall bladder, and pancreas.
Dr. Ennen is uniquely qualified to work with your child's digestive system to relieve his or her problems.
Musculosketetal - Being a kid still involves all the tumbles and knocks today that it included when we were little. From the physical challenges of the birth process to the bumps that come with learning to walk, to the collisions that happen on the playground and during sports, dancing, learning to ride a bike, surf or snowboard, good musculoskeletal health is essential to every child's proper growth and development.
Scoliosis develops when muscles along the spine pull unevenly left and right. Cerebral palsy occurs when the joints of the skull are stuck and unable to move. Osgood Schlatter syndrome happens when young athletes overuse and pull leg muscle fibers away from bones. Many other conditions, named and described, happen when the muscles and joints of the body are not functioning in balance.
Your child has an advantage that most of us didn't have … access to a highly trained chiropractor. Dr. Ennen is a doctor of chiropractic, and an applied kinesiologist with over a decade of experience taking care of musculoskeletal problems. Gently, effectively, and quickly.
Motor skills - Motor control and coordination is a developmental process which involves several key components of the nervous system. First we have to know where our body is and where we want to move it to. We need to get the messages from our muscles to our spinal cord to our cerebellum that tell us where we are in time and space. Then we decode those messages in our midbrain, decide (in our cortex) what we need to do to get to where we want to be, pass that message back through the midbrain and the cerebellum to the spinal cord to tell particular muscles to contract or relax as needed. This takes a lot of brain power and coordination in the form of timing, sequencing, focus and organization.
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