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The Unique Life of a
Chiropractic Child
Don N. Parkerson, Jr., D.C.
When I mention certain facts from my chiropractic
upbringing, patients’ reactions range from amusement to outright shock. Here are a few tidbits from my childhood that
you might find interesting.
Please note: I am not recommending that any or all children
should be raised this way. This article is
intended to be a humorous reminder that it is still humanly possible for a
child to survive without doctors, medications, and certain customs that our
parenting society now holds sacred.
1. Adjusted
for health – Tummy aches, colds,
sore throats . . . whatever the issue, it didn’t matter. I went to my Dad and asked to be
checked. That was our healthcare. Getting our alignment checked to prevent
and/or relieve health problems was as normal to us as eating dinner or going to
school.
2.
No drugs – Can you imagine a child living through their first
18 years of life without any form of drugs or medications? No antibiotics, no aspirin, no Tylenol, no
cough syrup? Yes, it is possible, and I
did it.
3.
No shots – This topic has gotten a lot of press lately because
certain celebrities have used the media to promote the vaccinations - autism
connection. Without fail, the mention of
childhood vaccinations elicits strong emotions on both sides of the fence. That’s good and it’s healthy to debate an
issue as important as mass inoculations of our children. Personally, I have never had any kind of
shots or vaccinations.
4.
I’ll drink after him – This was a game I’d play as a kid in the
lunchroom. Back then, having a cold or
fever didn’t stop you from going to school. But, other kids were instilled with fear of
the “sick kid” and were told to stay away.
Ever the chiropractic rebel, I would gladly grab the sick kid’s cup and
drink after them to prove that I wouldn’t get sick. Sounds crazy, and it probably is, but the point
was to show that germs don’t necessarily cause sickness – a weakened immune
system does. Germs are
ever-present. They only make us sick
when our immune system is compromised.
5.
Go get the chicken pox – Rather than vaccinating for diseases like chicken
pox, our parents saw the value in developing the natural immunity that comes
from having chicken pox at an early age.
When my buddy Michael got the chicken pox, it was time to go play with
Michael.
6.
No pediatrician – I went to an MD a grand total of 3 times during my
childhood. Each time was to get stitches
for busting my head open doing stupid boy stuff. Other than bleeding gashes from the noggin, I
was never really sick. So, I never went
to a pediatrician. Didn’t even know they
existed until I was older.
7.
No anti-perspirant deodorants – In my November 2007 article, I discussed the
potential links between antiperspirants deodorants and breast cancer. However, that wasn’t the point of our
family’s avoidance of antiperspirants, but rather the fact that
anti-perspirants alter the body’s natural and intended function of releasing
toxins via the underarm sweat glands.
8.
No fluoride in toothpastes – With apologies to the dentists, fluoride is a very
harmful chemical to your body. For an
article on the effects of fluoride, go to www.consumerhealth.org/articles
and click on the Fluoride link under “Food
and Environmental.”
9.
Distilled drinking water – Tap water contains chlorine, fluoride, and other
impurities. Unfortunately for us, home
water purification technology was cryptic at that time, so we had a massive
water distiller in our kitchen. This
thing was on 4 wheels, was bigger than our 13-channel console TV, and put out
water at a terribly slow rate. But, it
was pure water!
10.
Carry your pillow everywhere – Call me Linus, but I still take my pillow anytime
I’m going to be staying overnight. Most
hotel pillows are too big and are made of cheap foam. This is a recipe for waking up with a sore
neck or back and getting out of adjustment.
11.
X-rays here, toys there – Children are often fascinated by x-rays in our
clinic, but in our home growing up, x-rays were more common and numerous than
photographs. Every night, we watched my
Dad analyze x-rays using much of the same x-ray analysis procedure that our
clinic uses even now.
12.
Chewable Vitamin C – Children’s nutritional supplements were not very
sophisticated in the early 70’s, but one mainstay was those wafer-shaped,
orange-flavored, chewable Vitamin C tablets.
I remember them like it was yesterday.
I should because I ate thousands of them as a child.
13.
Farm - Raised Beef – My Dad’s off-day hobby was raising cows. Whenever our freezer got low, an unsuspecting
steer got the call. The point here is
that our beef had no steroids and no antibiotics or other harmful
chemicals. This didn’t seem like that
big of a deal until I went off to college and starting eating grocery store
beef in mass for the 1st time.
My GI tract revolted. There is
definitely a difference.
14.
The Perks – No discussion of being a chiropractic kid would be
complete without mentioning all of the homemade cakes, cookies, jams, and even
cornbread that came to us from those wonderful patients who were also great
southern cooks.
The Next Generation
It’s fun to see these same principles of a natural
childhood passed down to my 2 children and Dr. Neal’s 3 kids. None of our children have ever received vaccinations,
antibiotics, or medications of any kind.
Alignment-wise, Sadie was holding her proper
alignment until age 5 and responds very well to Orthospinology
adjustments. She has only had 1 or 2
stomach issues she brought home from school.
They were not fun, but nothing more severe than her body purging when it
needed to and Daddy doing a lot of late night sheet changes. Sadie takes 2 multivitamins from Nutri-West and a children’s Omega-3 Fatty Acid supplement
from Nordic Naturals.
Micah had colic during his 1st 3 months of
life and had his upper cervical spine adjusted during that time. Since then, he has never even had a cold and
takes the same supplements as his big sister.
For further information on this topic, you may contact Dr. Parkerson at
770.952.5353, by email at Parkerson@hpspinecenter.com,
or visit our clinic on the web at www.HPSpineCenter.com.
© HP Spine Center 2011