The Experience Miracles Podcast

Q&A: Everything About Newborn Chiropractic Care

Jan 17, 2025

Why Should Newborns See a Pediatric Chiropractor? 6 Reasons to Start From Birth

Episode 70 — Experience Miracles Podcast | Host: Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP — Pediatric Chiropractor & Founder of PX Docs | Published: January 17, 2025 | Duration: ~34 min

Key Takeaways

  • Birth trauma — including forceps, vacuum extraction, emergency C-sections, and cord complications — creates subluxation, sympathetic dominance, and nervous system dysregulation in newborns; chiropractic care is the only intervention trained to find and address this physical dysfunction.
  • The nervous system is the first system to develop in utero and produces more neurons and synaptic connections per day in infancy than an adult generates in an entire year, making the newborn period the most critical window for neurological optimization.
  • Common newborn challenges — breastfeeding difficulty, colic, acid reflux, constipation, chronic ear infections, and sleep disturbances — are frequently rooted in subluxation and nervous system dysfunction in the neck and jaw, not in feeding technique or parental error.
  • PX Docs chiropractors track neurodevelopmental milestones that conventional pediatric guidelines have fallen behind on — including removing crawling from CDC/AAP milestone trackers — catching early sensory, gross motor, and behavioral warning signs that standard checkups miss.
  • Early chiropractic care benefits both baby and mother: when a newborn’s nervous system is regulated, it actively supports postpartum co-regulation and recovery for mom, whose nervous system remains deeply connected to her infant’s in those first weeks and months.

Why Should Newborns See a Pediatric Chiropractor?

Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care for newborns is not about treating back pain — it’s about assessing and optimizing the nervous system at the most critical window of its development. From the moment a baby is born, the brainstem, vagus nerve, and upper cervical spine are vulnerable to the physical forces of labor and delivery, even in natural, intervention-free births. Checking a newborn for subluxation and nervous system dysfunction as early as possible gives that child the best neurological foundation for every developmental milestone ahead.

Dr. Tony Ebel outlines six reasons why every newborn should be checked by a trained pediatric chiropractor. The most urgent applies when birth involved physical interventions — forceps, vacuum extraction, induction, emergency C-section, or cord complications. These events can cause physical strain and trauma to the baby’s head, neck, and neurospinal system, leading to subluxation that no stretch, supplement, or therapy can resolve. Only a chiropractor trained in pediatric and perinatal neurology is equipped to detect and address it.

Even when birth goes beautifully, the nervous system still benefits from an early check. The goal of Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care is not to “fix bad things” — it’s to optimize function, support healthy development, and prevent the cascade of issues that undetected nervous system dysregulation can set in motion over the first months and years of life.

Reason 1: Birth Trauma Is the Most Overlooked Factor in Children’s Health [00:01:00 – 00:13:00]

Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP: The question that came through the platform is one I love: why should a newborn baby get checked — not just adjusted, but checked — by a pediatric chiropractor?

Let me start with the single most important reason, and the one the medical system almost entirely ignores: birth trauma.

Not every fertility journey, pregnancy, or birth goes according to plan. Forceps, vacuum extraction, cord complications, induction, epidural, manual assistance, sunny-side-up positioning — all of these put physical stress, strain, and trauma on the baby’s delicate head tissue, neck, and neurospinal system. The spine and neurospinal system are interwoven with nervous system function. When those structures are compressed or distorted during delivery, that creates subluxation — dysfunction in the spine that directly interferes with nervous system signaling.

The brain is literally surrounded by bone because it is the most important organ in the body. For a newborn, those bones are more malleable and soft — which is actually good news, because it means early chiropractic intervention can be profoundly effective. The earlier we start, the more transformative the change can be, not just to the nervous system but to the skull, spine, muscles, and everything that depends on them.

What birth trauma produces in a newborn isn’t just physical. There’s emotional trauma — the disruption to co-regulation with mom during intervention-heavy deliveries. And there’s chemical trauma: induction medications, epidurals, and antibiotics cross the blood-brain barrier through the bloodstream and umbilical cord. All three types of stress stack on top of each other. That is the beginning of The Perfect Storm.

“This is the single most overlooked factor in all of children’s health — the omission of how important birth trauma is. And as soon as you understand that, you know that getting them checked by a nervous system-trained chiropractor is essential.”

The majority of the babies I see who are severely colicky, struggling to latch, or failing to hit developmental milestones had a traumatic birth. In my clinical experience, that number approaches 90 percent or more. The connection is not a theory — the neurology is clear.

I want to say this to every mom listening: these conversations about birth trauma are not about looking back with regret. They are about naming what actually happened, because the medical system dismisses it entirely and never brings it up. Understanding birth trauma is how families get real answers.

There is no stretch, no vibe plate, no fish oil, no probiotic, no herbal supplement, and no therapy that can resolve nervous system subluxation and dysregulation. Chiropractors are the only practitioners trained to find it and take care of it.

Reason 2: Optimizing Nervous System Function — The Real Goal of Pediatric Chiropractic [00:14:00 – 00:17:00]

The nervous system is the first system to develop in utero. As an infant, the brain produces more neurons and more synaptic connections per day than an adult develops in an entire year. The newborn period is the most sensitive critical period in all of human neurological development.

Medical doctors measure chemistry: lab work, height, weight, blood panels. Pediatric chiropractors measure neurology. In our offices, we typically wait until an infant is two weeks old before running a formal nervous system and subluxation dysregulation check. What we’re looking for isn’t disease — it’s interference. Anything disrupting the nervous system’s ability to express full function.

The chiropractic adjustment is often framed as “removing the bad thing” — the subluxation, the dysfunction. That framing is technically accurate, but it misses the larger point. The real goal is nervous system optimization. The adjustment isn’t about getting rid of something bad. It’s about restoring the conditions for full, optimal nervous system expression.

“The nervous system is the boss of development. Our adjustments aren’t to get rid of bad stuff. Our adjustments are to optimize function and nervous system expression.”

The dream scenario for a pediatric chiropractor is to check a brand-new baby born at home in a birthing tub with a doula and a midwife — and find nothing that needs adjusting. That baby got the most optimal nervous system start possible. That is what Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care is ultimately working toward: keeping children out of The Perfect Storm entirely, not just pulling them out of it later.

Reason 3: Preventing Common Newborn Issues — Breastfeeding, Colic, Reflux, and More [00:17:00 – 00:21:00]

When people think about newborn health challenges — difficulty latching, thrush, acid reflux, constipation, chronic ear infections, colic, sleep disturbances — they rarely think about the nervous system first. They should.

The muscles of the jaw, tongue, neck, and esophagus are all controlled by cranial nerve and vagus nerve function. Breastfeeding isn’t a mechanical skill the baby either has or doesn’t — it is a neurologically-modulated process. When there is subluxation in the upper cervical spine or dysfunction in the jaw, the nervous system cannot properly coordinate latch, suck, and swallow. Moms carry enormous guilt thinking they are doing something wrong. In most cases, the dysfunction is on the receiver — the baby.

So many tongue ties are revised unnecessarily because subluxation and nervous system tension underneath the oral ties are never assessed first. There is nervous system tension before soft tissue dysfunction. Dentists, occupational therapists, myofascial therapists, and craniosacral therapists are all doing important work, but there is something underneath — something that a neurologically-focused chiropractic adjustment addresses at the root level.

“The mom carries all the weight and all the burden and thinks, ‘I’m not doing something right.’ It’s so often the dysfunction, the subluxation is on the receiver.”

We call babies under consistent chiropractic care from birth “chiro babies.” The difference in ease, connection, and co-regulation for these infants is visible and profound. When you address nervous system dysfunction early with a proper care plan — not just occasional check-ins — that might be the most transformational care a child could ever receive, because they have their entire life ahead of them.

Reason 4: Neurodevelopmental Tracking That Conventional Pediatrics Misses [00:21:00 – 00:24:00]

Not every chiropractor has advanced nervous system, pediatric, and perinatal training. PX Docs specifically trains in neurodevelopmental milestone tracking — including gross motor, fine motor, sensory, and brain-based development — at a level that standard pediatric guidelines have not kept pace with.

The milestone chart on the pediatrician’s office wall is outdated. Relying on the conventional medical system for neurodevelopmental tracking is like using AOL dial-up for your internet. In 2021 or 2022, the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics removed crawling from their developmental milestone tracker entirely. Every pediatric chiropractor and occupational therapist reacted the same way: how is this being dismissed?

Crawling is a critical stage in brain and nervous system integration. The fact that it was removed from official tracking doesn’t mean it stopped mattering — it means the standard benchmark just fell further behind.

A trained pediatric chiropractor can see trouble brewing in an infant. Glaringly obvious developmental delays, sensory processing issues, gross motor problems, fine motor challenges, and social-emotional irregularities — we find these things because we’re using a different lens, one built on current neuroscience rather than outdated public health guidelines.

Finding something early, being able to adjust and address it, and being able to communicate it to parents in an empowering way — that changes trajectories. We work in collaboration with developmental therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech therapists. These are all colleagues doing essential work. The difference is we can address nervous system dysregulation at the root.

Reasons 5 & 6: Postpartum Recovery, Co-Regulation, and Community [00:24:00 – 00:30:00]

When a baby’s nervous system is connected and regulated, it actively supports mom’s nervous system recovery and regulation. That is not a metaphor — it is physiology. The umbilical cord is no longer attached, but an infant is on mom’s hip around the clock in those first weeks and months. Co-regulation is happening continuously, and the quality of baby’s nervous system state directly influences the quality of mom’s postpartum neurological recovery.

Postpartum chiropractic care for mom is just as important as newborn chiropractic care. Labor and delivery are physically intense events for the mother’s spine and nervous system. Having a perinatal and postpartum focused chiropractor ensures both mom and baby are healing and regulating together.

The sixth reason is access — to a community, to trusted referrals, to informed choice. When you have a PX Doc on your team:

  • You have a provider who hosts workshops and classes, and knows the trusted practitioners in every related specialty.
  • When a tongue tie needs assessment, you get sent to someone who won’t just clip it without full evaluation.
  • When OT or PT is needed, you get a trusted referral — not a random insurance-network name.
  • You have conversations about every health decision, including vaccination choices, with a doctor who is a partner, not a dictator.

“Informed choice is something you absolutely positively deserve. It’s great to have a doctor who’s a partner, not a dictator.”

PX offices are built around this. Nursing moms are welcome. There is no judgment. Baby hour at most PX practices runs mid-morning — that window when a newborn has fed, is freshly awake, and is ready for care. The community is part of the care.

The Earliest Miracles [00:30:00 – 00:34:00]

This morning I had coffee and got to meet two beautiful chiro babies in person. One of them — baby number two for two of my favorite chiropractor parents — had a tough birth and spent time in the NICU. One of our PX doctors, Dr. Jeremy Lawson at Catalyst Chiro, drove an hour and a half to that hospital to check that baby right away.

You want to know the fastest way out of the NICU? An optimized nervous system, free of subluxation.

That little guy, not even two months out from a really difficult birth, is growing, latching, sleeping, and thriving — no gut issues, no skin issues, no immune issues. His nervous system is regulated.

These are the stories we talk about all the time — the children who came out of The Perfect Storm after years of struggle. But the highest-level miracle I can experience in practice is the one that never goes into the storm at all. The baby who gets checked from the beginning, whose subluxation is addressed before it compounds, whose nervous system is optimized from birth. That’s not a recovery story. That’s a prevention story. And that is what we are working toward for every family.

Your kids are resilient. They are meant to heal. The nervous system is the real key to that. The earlier you start, the more incredible the change can be.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should my newborn see a chiropractor if the birth went smoothly?

Even in natural, intervention-free births, the physical process of moving through the birth canal puts stress on a baby’s head, neck, and upper cervical spine. Dr. Tony Ebel has checked babies born at home in birthing tubs with midwives and found subluxation present. The degree of dysfunction is much milder than in forceps or vacuum deliveries, but the first check still matters — the ideal outcome is to confirm no adjustment is needed and establish a baseline.

What does birth trauma actually do to a baby’s nervous system?

Birth trauma — from forceps, vacuum extraction, induction, epidural, or emergency C-section — applies physical strain to the baby’s delicate head tissue, neck, and neurospinal system. This can create subluxation, which disrupts the flow of nervous system signals through the brainstem and spinal cord. The result is sympathetic dominance and nervous system dysregulation that can manifest as colic, feeding difficulty, sleep disruption, and later as sensory, motor, and developmental challenges.

Can chiropractic care actually help with breastfeeding problems?

Yes. Breastfeeding is controlled and coordinated by vagus nerve and cranial nerve function. When there is subluxation in the upper cervical spine or dysfunction in the jaw, a baby cannot properly coordinate latch, suck, and swallow — no matter how good mom’s technique is. Dr. Tony Ebel explains that in most breastfeeding difficulties, the dysfunction is on the receiver, not the mother. Addressing nervous system tension before pursuing tongue tie revision or other interventions often resolves the issue entirely.

At what age should a baby first see a pediatric chiropractor?

Dr. Tony Ebel recommends getting a newborn checked as soon as possible after birth — ideally within the first days or weeks. The nervous system is developing faster in infancy than at any other point in life, producing more neuronal connections per day than an adult generates in an entire year. The earlier dysfunction is identified and addressed, the more significant and lasting the improvement can be.

How is a PX Docs pediatric chiropractor different from a general chiropractor?

PX Docs chiropractors complete advanced postgraduate training in nervous system-focused, pediatric, and perinatal care through Dr. Ebel’s program at Life University. They are specifically trained in neurodevelopmental milestone tracking, INSiGHT Scans for nervous system assessment, and the clinical protocols for The Perfect Storm — the compounding sequence of prenatal stress, birth trauma, and early toxin exposure. Not every chiropractor has this training.

How do I find a PX Docs chiropractor near me?

You can search the full PX Docs practitioner directory to find a trained, nervous system-focused pediatric chiropractor in your area.

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