Ask:
Hi, I didn't have time to go through all the posts, but has anyone had any experience with using chiropractic treatment to help deal with LD? DD has an appointment today for an evaluation by Dr. Peter Scire, founder of Advanced Neurology Center, who does research on the assessment and management of Autisitic Spectrum Disorders and NeuroBehavioral Development Disorders such as ADHD, PDD, OCD, Dyslexia, Sensory Integration Disorder and other Learning Disorders. Has anyone heard of him? and does anyone have any opinions or personal experience, good or bad with chiropractic treatment for kids?
Answer:
We have used chiropractic care for DD #3 & 4 for sleep issues and fussiness before they were diagnosised with SPD. The chiropracter we see actually has 3 adopted children 1 with severe SPD and she has never mentioned chiropractic care for him. Guess I'll have to ask.
Answer:
OK, so even though no one is following this one, I'll let you know what happened anyway. Very interesting stuff is going on in neurological chiropractic care. Lily's assessment was basically to find out which side of her brain is deficient. We already knew from the NLD information that it was her right brain as well as the connectors between left and right that aren't working properly. So the chiropractor basically confirmed what we already knew. Their theory is though that if your right brain is not working at the same level as the left, you need to do therapies that affect just the right side. Most therapies, like OT for example, tend to work both sides at the same time, which is improving both sides, but still keeping them unequal. His recommendations were for home therapies that affect only the right side of Lily's brain, occasional adjustments, again only to the left side of her body which is controlled by the right brain, compressions and massage on the left side of her body, and fish oil supplements! We've haven't decided yet how far we'll go with this, but we will definitely try some of the simple things we can do at home. By no means do I see this as a "cure", (which is kind of how it was being pitched) but anything that can provide any little improvement is worth it.
Funny thing, Lily was relatively quiet during this whole process, not asking a lot of questions or talking about totally unrelated things. But in the car on the way home, Lily asked "is my left brain bad or is my right brain bad?" I told her that her left brain just works a little better and we are going to try and help her right brain. I certainly don't want her thinking that any part of her brain is bad!
Please let me know if anyone else seeks chiropractic help for autism and LD.
Answer:
Is this going to be covered by you health insurance or is this something you are doing on your own? Also my OT does work with just one side of my 2 youngest DDs because they each favor a side. I thought that was common practice. Please keep me posted as to what you find out.
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Yes, please keep us updated on the chiro care. I know they say it also helps reflux and other issues. I have had a lot of chiro on the past, and believe it definitely has a place, and I also had my son checked out when he was a baby. We know there is already a connection between the spine and the brain, so I, for one, wouldn't rule it out. The question is finding a good chiro who is educated enough in that area.
Answer:
I had a chiropractor tell me he could help with my son's adhd...but to be frank, I just didn't believe him. I understand that the spine does a lot...but I just can't see it hooking up a link that is apparently missing since birth. I wish you the best of luck in this, though. I'd be interested to see what results you see.
Answer:
Hi, everyone. No, my insurance doesn't cover chiro care, which is one reason we are having to think very hard on whether we want to pursue this further. Since we are already in occupational and language therapies, I think we'll continue those and try to get Lily's OT to work more on right brain exercises. If anyone is interested in pursuing chiro care for LD or autism or ADHD they do need to make sure they see a neuro-chiro specialist. Thanks for the interest. I'll let you know if we do pursue chiro care and if there are any improvements from it.