Unfortunately, car accidents are extremely common and happen every day. Sometimes, you may have your children with you when an accident occurs. While you may check your child thoroughly and not notice any injury, it’s still important for them to be seen by a chiropractor in Marietta to ensure nothing has been missed. Though children are resilient and often protected by extra safety measures like car seats or booster seats, they also have specific vulnerabilities in the event of car accidents. A general rule says that if your car has suffered damage, your body likely has too; the same is even more true for a child’s delicate body. With or without visible car accident injuries, seeking chiropractic care for your child can be critical.
How Children Are Impacted
Children’s bodies are often built differently than adult bodies in a number of ways. This is particularly true of their spine and neck, which are often more flexible than their adult counterparts. Additional flexibility puts the spinal cord at risk for damage at a higher rate than when adults suffer an accident. Further, the types of injuries children usually sustain are not always obvious immediately and may take a long time to become apparent. Because children are constantly growing, everyday things can be different in their body, and this growth may hide other pain as it is brushed off as “growing pains.” Physical changes can also worsen an injury or be stunted due to an injury, leading to lifelong health issues or spinal pain with neurological consequences.
A number of factors can affect the severity of injury in children. Some of these factors include:
Headrest Position: If the child is sitting in the normal car seating, a low headrest can be dangerous if it catches the head. Overly reclined seats and poor posture can also impact this. Even as children move out of car seats and booster seats, their seats should follow safety standards.
Age: As children age, ligaments become less pliable, muscles weaken and lose flexibility, and range of motion decreases. This means that an older child may have some ways in which they are more vulnerable to injuries requiring the benefits of chiropractic care.
The size of the vehicles involved and pre-existing health conditions can also be risk factors.
Preventing Child Accident Injuries
One of the key differences between children and adults involved in car accidents is the additional safety measures available for children. While seatbelts are always important for adults, children are often able to take advantage of additional methods of protection.
In young children, car seats can reduce the risk of injury during a crash by 71% to 82% over a seatbelt alone. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends the use of a car seat at least through age 7, or possibly longer, depending on your child’s size.
Booster seats can be installed between ages 4 and 12, depending on your child’s weight and height. Compared to only using a seatbelt, booster seats can reduce serious injury by 45%.
The use of a seatbelt alone, in both older children and adults, can reduce the risk of death or severe injury during accidents by 50%.
Seeking Care for Your Child
Just like anyone who has been in a car accident, your child should see a car accident chiropractor as soon as possible following a crash. Some injuries may have occurred but not begun to cause symptoms yet, and some children will be too young to properly communicate their symptoms at all. Some symptoms you can monitor in children include:
- Abnormal fatigue
- Headaches
- Neck pain
- Restricted motion or pain during movement
- Irritability
- Restlessness
If your child can talk, you can simply ask them about these symptoms and how they feel. If not, monitoring for symptoms will be important.
When you visit a chiropractor in Marietta, they will be able to fully assess a child of any age for injuries and damage caused by the collision. Chiropractors will be able to not only identify these issues, but also create treatment plans that address the root cause of the issue and prevent your child from having ongoing or lifelong complications due to untreated injuries. Additionally, many people prefer chiropractors for their children because they take a natural approach to healing, avoiding medication and invasive treatments when possible.
At AICA Marietta, our chiropractors are experts in treating car accident injuries, including those that may be hard to identify at first. Your child will then be given a personalized care plan that meets their needs and age-appropriate treatment methods so you can feel confident in their healing.