Scoliosis in Children

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Related Sections from My Web Site:

How Exercise Helped My Scoliosis

Scoliosis Exercises - Part I - Yoga and the Egoscue Method

Scoliosis Exercises - Part II - Stretching, Callanetics and Trigger Point Therapy

My complete index of all related pages.

What advice can you give me for scoliosis in children? What should we do?

Sorry, but I can't give anyone specific advice on what to do for scoliosis treatments for themselves or for scoliosis in children. Please keep in mind that I'm just a person who corrected most of her own scoliosis through exercise, yoga and acupressure and put up a web site on it. I'm not a scoliosis researcher or any kind of medical person. All I can tell you is what I found out from my research and what helped my scoliosis, and all of that is written up in my main spinal curvature section and exercises and tips for scoliosis. I don't know if the treatments that helped me will help other adults and children, but perhaps what I found useful will give you some treatment options to consider and review with your health care provider.

Recommended Book:

Back Care Basics : A Doctor's Gentle Program for Back and Neck Pain Relief - has a chapter specifically on yoga for scoliosis

Both of my children have had mild signs of scoliosis at different points in their lives. They are both at pretty high risk for spinal curvature because we have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome in the family and they have a mother, grandmother and great grandmother who all had scoliosis. However, in each instance, both children's spines straightened out with physical therapy, yoga and acupressure. I don't know for sure that they would have developed permanent spinal curvatures without the treatment regimen, but they are certainly both currently beating the odds by not having scoliosis. Plus, yoga and acupressure are all low cost, low risk treatments with many health benefits above and beyond possible scoliosis prevention (improved breathing, relaxed muscles, often beneficial for fibromyalgia, etc.) . So you may want to consider checking with your healthcare provider to see if yoga may be an appropriate option for your child.

I get many emails asking me if children can do yoga. Both of my children, ages 9 and 10, do yoga poses on their own. They do the poses willingly when their muscles get tight because they know the poses will help them to feel better.

Some of the doctors we've had in the past used to brush of my concerns about my sons being at risk for scoliosis and pectus excavatum. I guess they held the view that these things "just happen" and there's nothing you can do to prevent them. Our current pediatrician has a much more logical view. He has stressed that it is important for my sons to do activities like swimming and yoga or pilates. He believes that by keeping their upper body muscles strong and toned they may be able to ward off the severe skeletal problems their mother (me) had as a child.

It was great finding a pediatrician who does yoga himself each day. He is very aware of the benefits of yoga and the impact toned, balanced muscles can have on the skeletal system.

My children do all of the same treatments for scoliosis prevention listed in my web site that have helped me to correct my spinal curvature as an adult. You'd have to ask your doctors about the safety and appropriateness of these types of treatments for your own child, especially if they have health concerns.

Yoga for Children - A very colorful, high quality book with fun poses designed for teaching yoga to children, and a good work out for adults, too. I do many of these poses with my kids. I think having a book with lots of picture of kids having fun doing yoga has been a good motivator for my own children.

Related Pages in My Site

Scoliosis: Can Diet, Yoga and Exercise Therapies Help? - Explores the role of diet and exercise treatment. Reviews recent research linking scoliosis to osteopenia and osteoporosis.

Scoliosis Exercises Recommended books and tips. Covers yoga and Egoscue method.

Scoliosis Exercises - Part II - Recommended books and tips. Covers trigger point therapy, Callanetics and stretching.

Related Web Sites

Yoga for the Special Child - a comprehensive program of yoga techniques designed to enhance the natural development of children with special needs.

Disclaimer: Statements and information regarding any products mentioned within this site have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition. Any information on this site should be considered as general information only and should not be used to diagnose or treat any health condition.

See your health care provider for a diagnosis and treatment of any medical concerns you may have, and before implementing any diet, supplement, exercise or other lifestyle changes. Read the rest of our disclaimer and terms of use.

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