Children are flexible and bounce back quickly from the many falls and incidents they experience while growing. Ignoring problems like shin or back pain while failing to recognize growing postural problems as they grow can result in back, knee, and even upper back and neck issues years later. This is especially true with parents who have these issues. Have you ever wondered why you have issues, and now your child is having them too? While I hate to use the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree analogy, unless we are adopted, we look like our parents and walk like them too. Nature or nurture, or perhaps we did not understand the reasons we suffer from injuries to our joints that have been considered normal but are far from it. Why take your children for chiropractic checkups? Postural problems begin from the ground up. As we age, we feel those issues more and insidiously, we adapt and get used to the symptoms of the stiff neck, the back ache, the popping shoulder, the foot and arch pain, and consider those symptoms to be normal. Your sports chiropractor may show you something you didn’t understand. I always love sharing this old poster since it offers a point of view the medical establishment does not take seriously. Mechanical problems are seen in photos like these; we just have to recognize them. Small children, small, easy-to-correct problems. Big children, larger issues, and adults, even larger issues after years of ignoring those symptoms. Something as simple as a child’s early chiropractic adjustments and off-the-shelf foot orthotics can keep knees healthy, improve the lower back and how it functions, and help them age and function better. The “it’s your arthritis diagnosis for osteoarthritis” of the spine and joints took years to occur, and it was preventable had we taken it seriously then. The bad knees were once better knees that, if managed properly, would be handling stairs in your 60’s as they did in your 30’s if we took the early childhood symptoms seriously. We cannot go back in time, but not ignoring the symptoms our children now have will help them avoid many of the problems you may endure. The business of joint replacements is as large as it is because of our ignorance. It is our responsibility to take care of ourselves as well as our children. Aging is a long game. We just need to do it better and be more mindful of it and its consequences. Overpronation Scoliosis, as mentioned in my book, Cheating Mother Nature: What You Need to Know to beat chronic pain, may be reduced or prevented with foot orthotics and early chiropractic care. This is due to foot overpronation, a common inherited trait that foot orthotics can help reduce markedly. Early chiropractic care can improve posture, and since chiropractors are primary care providers of the musculoskeletal system, they will often make you aware of medical problems too. If you go to the chiropractor, shouldn’t your children visit too? While it is the norm for your children to visit the pediatrician, medically, they have little training in understanding musculoskeletal problems as they develop. Your chiropractor understands how posture, motion, and fitness are important to your children. This, along with nutrition, which helps their gut and fuels their bodies, can make them less likely to be ill as adults. The habits of healthy living pay off over the years with healthier lifestyles. Some of our patients began with their first adjustment for an ear infection, which may have been the first and the last one they may ever have had. If you want healthier children, add chiropractic to their healthy lifestyle.