Chiropractic Care for Babies and Children in Joondalup: Gentle Support at Every Age
Age-appropriate, gentle chiropractic care for infants, toddlers and children, supporting healthy movement, posture and development at every stage.
Growing up involves plenty of physical milestones, from the birth process itself through crawling, walking, school bags and sport. We see babies and children across Joondalup and Perth’s northern suburbs at every one of these stages, always with technique and pressure adapted to their age and comfort.
What Is Paediatric Chiropractic Care?
Paediatric chiropractic care involves the gentle assessment of the spine, joints and surrounding muscles in babies, toddlers and children, aimed at supporting healthy movement, posture and development.
Children can experience physical stress from a number of sources, the birth process itself, including a long labour or an assisted or caesarean delivery, falls while learning to crawl or walk, poor posture from school bags or device use, and the bumps and strains that come with sport and active play.
Every technique is modified for a child’s age, size and comfort, and looks nothing like the care given to an adult.
Techniques by Age
For Babies Under Two
In line with the Chiropractic Board of Australia’s current guidance, we do not perform spinal manipulation on children under two years of age.
Assessment and any hands on care uses extremely gentle fingertip pressure, no more than what you’d use to test the ripeness of a tomato, to encourage movement in a joint, never a forceful adjustment.
For the lower back and pelvis, we sometimes use the Activator instrument on its lowest setting, delivering a very light, controlled impulse.
We also check the tension in the tissue around the mouth, including for tongue or lip tie related tightness, and use gentle massage to help release it. We don’t diagnose or release a tongue or lip tie itself, that assessment sits with your GP, dentist, or a lactation consultant, but we can support the surrounding tissue.
For Toddlers and Older Children
Treatment is modified to suit each child’s age, size and tolerance, using gentle manual techniques or low-force instruments such as the Activator.
As children grow, we also keep an eye on posture and movement patterns that can be affected by school bags, desks and increasing device use.
Soft Tissue Techniques
Gentle myofascial release and stretching can help ease muscle tension and support coordinated movement, useful at any age from infancy through the teenage years.
Signs Parents Sometimes Notice
- A strong preference for turning the head to one side, or a flattened area developing on the head, in babies
- Apparent stiffness or restricted movement noticed during tummy time or nappy changes
- Delays or concerns with crawling or walking
- Postural changes such as rounded shoulders or a forward head position from device use
- General growing pains or minor aches related to sport or active play
- A noticeable postural asymmetry, such as one shoulder sitting higher than the other
- Persistent back or neck pain in older children and teens, particularly if it’s been present for more than a few weeks
What May Contribute to This
- Positioning in the womb, particularly in a tight or restricted space later in pregnancy
- The birth process itself, including longer labours, assisted delivery, or caesarean birth
- Falls while learning to crawl, walk, or during active play
- Heavy school bag use or long periods of screen time affecting posture
What the Research Shows
Gentle manual therapy has evidence of benefit for infant neck asymmetry and restricted movement.
A systematic review by Rodríguez-Huguet et al. (2023) , looking specifically at physiotherapy for congenital muscular torticollis, a common cause of head turning preference in infants, found that gentle soft tissue mobilisation and manual stretching techniques improved neck range of motion across six randomised controlled trials.
A trial using gentle upper neck mobilisation specifically found improvement in both neck movement and head shape.
A randomised controlled trial by Pastor-Pons et al. (2021) studied infants under 28 weeks old with positional plagiocephaly, a flattened, asymmetrical head shape linked to a turning preference. Infants who received gentle manual therapy targeting the upper neck, in addition to caregiver education on repositioning, showed significantly greater improvement in neck rotation and in head shape than those given caregiver education alone.
For chronic back pain specifically, manipulation added to exercise shows real, lasting benefit in older children and teens.
A multicentre randomised trial by Evans et al. (2018) , published in the journal Pain, followed 185 adolescents aged 12 to 18 with chronic low back pain over a full year. Those who received spinal manipulation alongside exercise therapy ended up with significantly less pain, less disability and higher satisfaction with care than those doing exercise alone, with the biggest difference at the six month mark and no serious treatment related adverse events. A related trial from the same research area found manipulation didn’t add benefit for adolescents with acute, rather than chronic, low back pain, so the evidence points to a bigger role for manipulation once pain has become persistent rather than in the first few weeks.
Evidence for broader paediatric chiropractic care is still developing, though safety data is reassuring.
A 2024 review by Misra, Jaber and Long (2024) summarised the evidence and safety of chiropractic care in children and found limited quality data on effectiveness, with a range of findings and often no definite conclusion, while noting that serious adverse events are rare when age-appropriate, gentle technique is used.
Common Questions
A few practical answers for parents bringing a baby, toddler, child or teenager to the clinic.
How We Can Help
Care is always adapted to your child’s age, size, tolerance and individual needs.
Gentle, age-adapted assessment and hands on care for babies through to teenagers, covering everything from infant asymmetry to school-age posture.
Used at the lowest possible setting for babies, and adapted force for older children, always well within age-appropriate guidelines.
Hands on work and gentle stretching to ease muscle tension and support coordinated movement.
Taping used where appropriate for older children to support posture or provide feedback during activity.
References
- Rodríguez-Huguet M, Rodríguez-Almagro D, Rosety-Rodríguez MÁ, Vinolo-Gil MJ, Ayala-Martínez C, Góngora-Rodríguez J. Effectiveness of the Treatment of Physiotherapy in the Congenital Muscular Torticollis: A Systematic Review. Children. 2024;11(1):8. PMID 38275429
- Pastor-Pons I, Hidalgo-García C, Lucha-López MO, Barrau-Lalmolda M, Rodes-Pastor I, Rodríguez-Fernández ÁL, Tricás-Moreno JM. Effectiveness of pediatric integrative manual therapy in cervical movement limitation in infants with positional plagiocephaly: a randomized controlled trial. Italian Journal of Pediatrics. 2021;47:41. PMID 33632268
- Evans R, Haas M, Schulz C, Leininger B, Hanson L, Bronfort G. Spinal manipulation and exercise for low back pain in adolescents: a randomized trial. Pain. 2018;159(7):1297-1307. PMID 29596158
- Misra SM, Jaber O, Long C. Chiropractic Care in Children: A Review of Evidence and Safety. Clinical Pediatrics. 2025;64(7):1028-1032. PMID 39710943
Disclaimer: This page is intended as general information only and does not replace individual assessment and advice from a qualified health professional. If you're dealing with concerns about your baby or child’s movement, posture or comfort, book an appointment with our team so we can assess your specific situation and recommend an appropriate treatment plan.
Location Details
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Sunday | 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM |
| Monday | 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM |
| Tuesday | 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM |
| Wednesday | 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM |
| Thursday | 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM |
| Friday | 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM |
| Saturday | 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM |
