Chiropractic Care for Constipation and Digestion in Children, Lafayette CO

When your child's gut will not heal

You have cleaned up the diet. Added the probiotics. Maybe

run the panels and tried more protocols than you can count.

And your child is still constipated, still uncomfortable, still not

right.

You have not failed. You have been working downstream of

the real problem.

If you have been managing this for months and are tired of it,

you are not the first parent to find us that way.

​

The brain controls the gut, not the other way around

The nervous system tells the gut how to move food, how to absorb nutrients, and when to shut inflammation off. That signal travels down the vagus nerve. When the vagus nerve is stuck in stress mode, supplements and clean food enter a system that cannot fully use them.

​

Think of the vagus nerve as the head chef and the food and supplements as the groceries. Without a chef giving orders, it does not matter how good the groceries are. The kitchen stays in chaos.

This is not a reason to give up on nutrition. It is a reason to understand what has to come first.

​

What the vagus nerve is supposed to be doing

Motility. Moving food through the digestive tract. When the signal is off you get constipation, slow transit and a child who goes days between.

​

Absorption. Opening the cellular gates so nutrients actually enter the bloodstream instead of passing straight through. This is why a child can eat a beautiful diet and still come back deficient on labs.

 

Inflammation control. The vagus nerve is the body's off-switch for chronic inflammation. When that is offline, inflammation stays stuck on, which shows up as eczema, food reactions and a gut that stays irritated.

​

Where the connection gets broken

The vagus nerve exits at the top of the neck, just below the skull. Birth can strain that area: forceps, vacuum, a C-section, a breech presentation, an induction, or an unusually fast labor.

​

That strain is subtle. It does not show up at a standard visit, and it does not announce itself. But it shapes how your child's nervous system signals from then on, and by three or four what started at birth has often hardened into a pattern.

​

The withholding cycle, and why it matters

Most children who end up chronically constipated have had one bowel movement that hurt. After that they start holding. Holding makes the next one harder and more painful, which makes them hold more.

 

By the time a parent brings a child in, the original cause is often long gone and the cycle is running on its own. Breaking it usually takes two things at once: getting things moving, and settling the nervous system that is now bracing against it.

​

What we actually use, by name

NetworkSpinal, Sacro Occipital Technique (SOT) and Logan Basic, with particular attention to the upper neck where the vagus nerve exits. SOT places padded wedges under the pelvis so body weight does the work.

​

No twisting, no popping. For a young child this is fingertip-light.

We start with INSiGHT scans, which measure where your child's nervous system is dysregulated rather than asking you to take our word for it.

​

Dr. Michelle Green is CACCP-certified through the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA), with 200 hours of advanced pediatric training. She is also a Certified SOT Pediatric Practitioner (CSSPP) through the Peak Potential Institute and a PX Docs certified pediatric and family chiropractor.

​

What healing tends to look like, in order

When the nervous system starts to regulate, change follows a sequence rather than arriving all at once.

​

Bowel movements become more regular and food tolerance widens. Sleep often shifts early. Then the immune side settles: fewer infections, calmer skin. Then emotional regulation, with fewer meltdowns and easier transitions.

​

Many children show changes in sleep and digestion within the first several weeks of consistent care.

​

What a first visit looks like

Nothing is decided on the first visit, and nothing happens to your child that they have not agreed to.

 

We take a full history: the birth, feeding or diet, when the constipation started, what has already been tried, and what a bad week looks like. Then we run INSiGHT scans to see where tension is sitting. There is no radiation and nothing uncomfortable.

​

At the follow-up we walk you through what the scans showed in plain language. You decide from there. If we do not think we are the right fit for your child, we will say so and point you toward who might be.

​

Book a pediatric assessment, or call or text 720-722-1622 if you would rather ask questions first.

​

When to see a doctor first

See your pediatrician for blood in the stool, vomiting, abdominal swelling or severe pain, weight loss or poor growth, no bowel movement in a baby under one, fever with abdominal pain, or constipation that started suddenly with no change in diet.

​

Impacted stool needs to be cleared medically before anything else is useful. We refer, and we will help you get there.

​

Serving Boulder County families

Families come to our Lafayette office from Lafayette, Boulder, Louisville, Erie, Superior, Broomfield and Longmont. This page is one part of our wider pediatric chiropractic care in Lafayette, which covers newborns through teenagers.

​

More on this from our blog

Why your child's gut will not heal, and what is really going on

What a nervous system scan shows in a child

Chiropractic care for colic and infant sleep

​

Constipation and digestion questions, answered

Can chiropractors help children with constipation?

The nervous system tells the gut how to move food, and that signal runs down the vagus nerve. Gentle pediatric chiropractic works on the upper neck where that nerve exits, and on getting the system out of stress mode and into rest and digest. Parents commonly report more regular and less painful bowel movements. It sits alongside the diet, fluid and movement side rather than instead of it.

​

How to clear impacted stool in a child?

Impaction needs to be cleared medically, usually with a stool softener or an osmotic laxative your pediatrician recommends. Do not try to manage it with manual pressure or home remedies. Once things are moving again, that is the point at which the nervous system side is worth looking at, because that is often what keeps the cycle from restarting.

​

Why won't my child's gut heal even with a clean diet and probiotics?

Because gut healing depends on the nervous system as much as nutrition. The vagus nerve signals the gut how to move food, absorb nutrients and control inflammation. If that signal is stuck in stress mode, supplements enter a system that cannot fully use them, which is why families plateau after months of doing everything right.

​

Are chiropractic adjustments safe for kids?

Yes, especially when they are done by a chiropractor with post graduate pediatric training. An adult spine and a child spine are not the same thing, which is exactly why you should check what pediatric certifications your chiropractor holds. Dr. Green holds CACCP, CSSPP and PX Docs pediatric certifications, and we use low force technique only. There is no twisting or popping at any age.

​

Should a 10 year old see a chiropractor?

There is no upper or lower age limit, and school-age children are a large part of our practice. The pressure used scales with the child, so a ten-year-old visit looks much like an adult one apart from force.

​

Book a visit

Book a pediatric assessment online, or call or text 720-722-1622.

​