For the last couple of weeks, Ruth has been waking up a lot at night and not napping well. At first we thought it was that she's develoing sleep patterns (which we knew occurs around 4 months.) Then we thought maybe she was becoming more social and wanted to see us instead of sleep. Parenting always has a way of making us realize how little we know and how little in control we are!
This past week, however, her right eye started to water, and then we knew - she couldn't sleep because of ear pain. This has happened three times in her short 5 months of life. I started giving her ear pain drops and tylenol and that would allow her to get a little sleep and in the meantime, Jake and I prayed constantly for wisdom. Our pediatrician had said that if she gets anymore ear infections that we would need to consider tubes.
In the meantime, we had multiple instances where friends, blogs or random mail mentioned using chiropractic techniques for ear pain. After reading about how it was suppose to help (and a long night of being up with Ruth and praying for wisdom during those midnight hours) we decided the next morning to call a local family chiropractor who works with children.
We felt at peace with it (and optimistic!) Worst case scenario, we would waste $35 and end up going to the Pediatrician anyways. Best case scenario, it would help. Either way, we would feel better knowing we had tried every available option before defaulting to another anitbiotic or surgery. The following is what we had read and it didn't seem harmful or painful - especially in light of what we knew antibiotics do to her body:
"The chiropractic adjustment works by relaxing the neck muscles which allows the Eustachian tubes to drain properly. It rarely takes more than 1 visit. Studies have shown that regular chiropractic care can keep away recurring ear infections. Many children who have been told they needed tubes in their ears are able to avoid surgery, by visiting the chiropractor."We went. The chiropractor was very informative about how the body ws designed and how chiropractic techniques could help (which I had read about in detail the night before.) He looked in her ears and noted that her right ear was full of fluid and pressure. He told me which area of her neck would be off a little (likely from squeezing through the birth canal at birth)
IF that was the reason she was gettig ear infections. After evaluating Ruth, he found and adjusted three areas, one of which he felt was clearly blocking the right eustachian tube. No tears, no pain involved, and in a few minutes we were leaving.
I'm not going to lie, I wasn't sure that it would work, but knew that 1) we discerned God wanted us to do this before going to the pediatrician and 2) what we had read and what the doctor explained made perfect sense - not to mention that we felt we had nothing to lose by going.
That night, we put Ruth to bed without any pain medicine and she slept 5 hours before waking up - waking up happy and squealing I might add. Yesterday she took 3 good long naps (2 hours!) and last night, we put her to bed at 7pm and she woke up at 11pm happy and hungry. She went right back to sleep after eating and next thing we knew, we heard laughter and squealing over the monitor at 6:45am.
While I know there's a chance this could all be coincidence, I also know that we had prayed for wisdom, God gave us a clear direction to go, and Ruth is now happy, well rested and pain free. We are so, so thankful for a Creator who knows our bodies inside and out... Thankful that he freely gives us wisdom when we ask and thankful that he has given us amazing medical professionals that are not only knowledgable in their field, but also openly talk about God as the creator of our children when they advise us. Oh... and also thankful that both our pediatrician and chiropractor are less than 2 miles from our home!
