Position Paper on
Chiropractic for Children

The health and welfare of children around the world is, and should be, a major concern for health care practitioners and advocates. Children in all nations are at risk from a staggering number of dangers from infectious diseases and conditions. The precarious nature of their health has been further threatened a frightening increase in iatrogenic incidents.

Parents are alarmed by news of possible links between vaccines and autism, the overuse and abuse of antibiotics for otitis media, the shameful misuse of Ritalin and growth hormones, and the lack of proper testing of drugs given to children. They are aware that medical errors needlessly kill as many as 98,000 Americans die annually -- more than from highway accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. They are looking for something better and many of them are finding chiropractic to be a safe and effective alternative.

The World Chiropractic Alliance strongly supports the right of parents to seek and obtain chiropractic care for all their children, regardless of age or presence or absence of symptoms.

The care of children is consistent with recommended chiropractic guidelines, as set forth in the Council on Chiropractic Practice "Clinical Practice Guideline Number 1, Vertebral Subluxation in Chiropractic Practice," included in the National Guideline Clearinghouse.

This document, which has been widely embraced by the chiropractic profession, states:

"Since vertebral subluxation may affect individuals at any age, chiropractic care may be indicated at any time after birth. As with any age group, however, care must be taken to select adjustment methods most appropriate to the patient’s stage of development and overall spinal integrity. Parental education by the subluxation-centered chiropractor concerning the importance of evaluating children for the presence of vertebral subluxation is encouraged."

It provides ample documented evidence that chiropractic care is safe for children and can have beneficial effects on health and fitness from newborn to adult stages.

In addition to the CCP Guideline, two peer-reviewed journals, Chiropractic Pediatrics and the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics disseminate critically reviewed papers in this field. Courses in pediatrics are offered at the professional and postgraduate levels at accredited chiropractic colleges and by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association.

Unlike medical treatment and surgical procedures, chiropractic care a presents an extremely low risk for chiropractic pediatric patients, as reported by Dr. R.A. Pistolese in "Risk assessment of neurological and/or vertebrobasilar complications in the pediatric chiropractic patient" (Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research 1998; 2(2).

The World Chiropractic Alliance also condemns the efforts by the medical pediatric establishment to malign chiropractic and prevent parents from obtaining chiropractic care for their children. These blatant attempts to spread mis-information and fear is reminiscent of the campaign by the American Medical Association and other medical organizations against the profession in the 1960s-90s, which was deemed by the courts to have been an illegal conspiracy to destroy competition in the health care field.