One great joy of parenting is watching our children grow. We even take a sweet-sour pleasure when they begin to outgrow their four-month-old "new" jeans! But, what happens to our feelings when growing seems to be accompanied by mysterious "growing pains"?

According to the pediatric community, a significant number of children are afflicted with "growing pains". Most often affected are the legs, including thigh, ankle, and knee. Pain usually occurs late in the day and may involve muscles, joints, and bones.

Infrequently, pain can become quite severe and include swelling, redness, fatigue, fever, weight-loss and limping.

In chiropractic, we see pain as a signal to investigate further. Frequently, growing pains are a sign that some type of imbalance is occurring within the body. With a child, whose body's biggest job is growing, pain associated with areas that are constantly growing is a serious matter.

Growing means building a new body, so we'll use building a house to explain how interferences in the body, called vertebral subluxations, may cause problems for a growing child.

All structure and function in the human body is controlled by the brain. The brain is the general contractor and director for all building in the body. The brain carries out the Architect's plans and is the keeper of the T-square and the level. The tool the brain uses to supply this information to the different individual work sites in the body is the nervous system. Without the brain communicating through the nervous system to the body parts, the body parts are totally incapable of building a balanced, healthy "house" for your child to live in.

You can imagine the look of a house built without the instructions and decision-making capabilities of the contractor to direct and coordinate the building process!

If there is a failure in communication between the contractor and the workmen, the walls of one room might end up eight feet high while the walls of another room end up 15 feet high! This analogy applies to all parts of the body's building "crew". Directions are required from the brain on the proper instruction and function to do the job properly.

Vertebral subluxations are bony misalignments of one or more of the bones that make up the spine. The spinal bones, called vertebrae, protect the spinal cord and nerve communication system from the brain to the body (contractor to builders). Vertebral subluxations cause interference to communication that results in the body's inability to receive instructions on function, including how to build your child's growing body. More than pain is the result. The body may grow imbalanced; the structure not coordinated. The building isn't sound.

To prevent "growing pains", have us check your child's spine for vertebral subluxations. Insure that the "house" he/she lives in is being built level and balanced with all the parts properly coordinated.