Best Nappy Changing Technique for New Borns to Reduce Colic. Could 99% of those who change diapers be doing it wrong? It is dumbfounding to learn that by pulling a babies legs up with one hand it can be causing nerve interference leading to colic in infants. Written By: Doc John Edwards, DC If you were hunched over a lot, like if you were working on a laptop or driving for too long, most people start feeling tightness in their middle backs as their vertebra start creeping backwards out of position. The more you do it, the more sore it gets. In a way this is exactly what is going on with our babies when we raise their legs over and over again to change their diapers.
A lot of parents without realizing it are causing the subluxations and nerve interference that results in the colic I see in the office. Yet until that class, I had no idea why I kept seeing the same colicky kids over and over again! The double leg lift is pretty intuitive, so I don’t blame us for thinking it was the right way to change a baby.
Infants are folded inside mom, and once they discover their feet it’s virtually impossible to keep them out of their mouths. But the difference in the bending here is at the hip joint. The femur heads in infants are barely developed because they don’t need the bony structure for standing or the muscle strength and tension for walking. That lets them fling their feet over their heads and giggle without even thinking about it. But when we use those legs for handles for a child who doesn’t have that secondary lumbar curve, we’re folding the spine at its peak, pushing the vertebra out of alignment where the nerve flow for the intestines comes out, and we’re doing this how many times? Three? Five? Seven times a day?
We need to break this cycle, for everyone’s sanity. This is why I advocate the roll technique for diaper changing babies who haven’t started crawling yet. It takes a little practice, but after a few days you’ll get used to it. Holding the baby by her chest and rolling side to side keeps her spine in alignment and will help hold her adjustments so much better. To see this in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9IDpEVkemM&feature=youtu.be Jeni 23 February 2014