Do Infants Grow Out of Colic?

What do fussy babies and kids with ADHD have in common? The answer might surprise you—and empower you to take action.

If you're a parent dealing with a colicky baby, you've probably heard these words from well-meaning healthcare providers: "Don't worry, they'll grow out of it." But here's what no one is telling you—babies don't just grow out of colic. They grow into other challenges.

The endless crying, the back arching, the sleepless nights that leave you questioning everything you're doing as a parent—these aren't just difficult phases that magically disappear. They're your baby's way of communicating that something deeper is happening in their nervous system.

The Truth About What Happens After Colic

Every week, parents walk into healthcare offices with seven-year-olds struggling with sensory issues, ADHD, or anxiety. When practitioners dig into these children's histories, there it is—they were colicky babies. The same stress that caused endless crying at three months old is now causing meltdowns at seven years old. The labels changed, but the underlying problem never left.

You're not imagining the connection, and you're certainly not failing as a parent.

Why Everything You've Tried Hasn't Worked

If you're reading this, chances are you've already tried everything—eliminating dairy from your diet if you're breastfeeding, keeping detailed food journals, trying every colic drop and remedy on the market, adjusting feeding schedules, and following countless pieces of advice from family, friends, and online forums.

You're exhausted, overwhelmed, and probably wondering what you're doing wrong. Here's the truth: You're not doing anything wrong. You're just missing the most important piece of the puzzle.

The Real Root Cause Goes Deeper Than Digestion

Most people think colic is purely a digestive issue—gas, indigestion, food sensitivities. While these symptoms are real and distressing, they're only part of the story. The digestive system is completely controlled by the nervous system.

Think of your baby's nervous system as their internal air traffic controller. This system coordinates every function in their tiny body. When that controller gets stressed and overwhelmed, everything starts backing up—digestion, sleep, emotional regulation, and development.

The vagus nerve, often called the "master nerve," travels from the brainstem all the way down through the neck, controlling the esophagus, stomach, and intestines. When birth trauma or stress affects this nerve, digestion literally gets stuck.

This is why we need to change how we think about colic. Instead of seeing it as a mysterious condition your baby will "grow out of," understand it for what it really is: STUCK.

• Baby gets stuck in the birth canal during delivery

• Stress gets stuck in their nervous system

• Digestion gets stuck

• Your baby stays stuck in distress

  
  

The Hidden Trigger No One Discusses: Birth Trauma

Here's a pattern that's impossible to ignore: nearly 100% of colicky babies have experienced some form of birth intervention—C-sections, forceps delivery, vacuum extraction, or labor induction. These interventions, while sometimes medically necessary, create physical stress on the upper neck area where crucial nerves originate.

But the stress often begins even before birth. The umbilical cord acts like a direct connection, transferring your stress during pregnancy to your baby's developing nervous system. If you experienced anxiety, physical discomfort, or stress during pregnancy, your baby's nervous system was already on high alert before they even arrived.

The physical tension from birth gets stuck in two key places: the upper neck area and the middle back. This explains why colicky babies arch their backs and stiffen their necks—they're literally trying to stretch out the tension, just like you might do after sitting at a desk all day.

Your baby is communicating through their body language that the problem isn't in their stomach—it's in their spine and nervous system.

The Progression Every Parent Should Know About

Here's the timeline that plays out for countless families when the underlying nervous system stress isn't addressed:

• Colic (0-6 months): Crying, digestive issues, sleep problems

• Chronic ear infections (6-18 months): Repeated infections requiring antibiotics

• Speech delays (18-36 months): Late talking or unclear speech

• Sensory processing issues (3-5 years): Over-sensitivity to sounds, textures, or environments

• ADHD/anxiety (5-10 years): Difficulty focusing, emotional dysregulation

  
  

Each stage involves the same stuck stress pattern affecting your child's nervous system—it just shows up differently as they grow and develop. The colic didn't disappear; it transformed into new challenges.

Making matters worse, all those antibiotics prescribed for recurring ear infections can disrupt gut health, while other medications may increase nervous system stress. Now you have a child heading toward emotional and behavioral challenges, and traditional therapies may feel like pushing a car with the parking brake still on.

What Your Baby's Body Language Is Telling You

When your baby cries inconsolably and arches their back, they're not just expressing discomfort—they're giving you valuable information. That back arching isn't about gas or reflux; it's your baby's instinctive attempt to release tension in their nervous system.

Just as you might stretch your neck and back after a stressful day, your baby is trying to relieve the physical tension stored in their spine and nervous system from their birth experience.

Understanding that colic isn't something you have to just "wait out" is the first step to helping your child heal and thrive. Your baby isn't broken, defective, or unusually difficult—they're stuck in a stress pattern that can be addressed.

The earlier you address nervous system stress, the faster children heal. This is because of neuroplasticity—the brain's amazing ability to form new connections and patterns, especially in infancy and early childhood.

Taking Action: What Parents Can Do

Trust your instincts. You know your baby better than anyone. If something feels off, don't let anyone dismiss your concerns with "they'll grow out of it."

Look for practitioners who understand the nervous system connection. Seek providers who look at the whole child, not just individual symptoms. Ask about their approach to addressing nervous system stress and birth trauma.

Consider the birth experience. Reflect on your pregnancy and birth experience. Were there interventions? Stress during pregnancy? Extended labor? This information can provide valuable clues.

Think beyond quick fixes. While symptom management has its place, focus on finding practitioners who want to address root causes rather than just managing symptoms.

Document patterns. Keep track of when your baby is most distressed, what seems to help, and any family history of similar challenges. This information can be valuable for healthcare providers.

Your Child Deserves More Than Labels and Management

Your baby doesn't need more labels, more medications to manage symptoms, or parents who feel helpless and exhausted. They need their nervous system to shift from a stressed, stuck state to a balanced, thriving state.

When that stuck tension from birth gets addressed properly, families often see remarkable transformations. Babies who once cried constantly become content and happy. Sleep improves. Digestion settles. The whole family dynamic can shift.

The Bottom Line for Parents

You are not failing. You are not overreacting. You are not "just anxious new parents." You are advocates for your child, and your instincts matter.

Your child isn't broken—they're stuck. And with the right approach, they can get unstuck. At Live Well Family Chiropractic, we understand that colic is often a nervous system issue masquerading as a digestive problem, and we know how to address it appropriately. Hope, answers, and help are available, and we want to provide that for you, so don’t hesitate to give us a call today! If you are not local to us, check out the PX Docs directory to find an office near you. 

The earlier you take action to support your baby's nervous system health, the better their outcomes will be—not just for colic, but for their overall development, learning, behavior, and emotional regulation as they grow.

You’ve Tried Everything for Speech… Here’s What Everyone Overlooks

You’ve Tried Everything for Speech… Here’s What Everyone Overlooks

You've been there. Sitting in yet another speech therapy appointment, watching your child struggle through the same exercises you've practiced countless times at home. You've followed every recommendation, invested thousands of dollars, and dedicated hours each week to speech drills and muscle exercises. Yet here you are, months or even years later, with your little one still struggling to communicate clearly while other children their age chatter away effortlessly.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone—and more importantly, you're not missing anything as a parent. The gap isn't in your dedication or your child's effort. The missing piece is that nearly 1 in 12 U.S. children ages 3-17 experience voice, speech, language, or swallowing disorders, and the vast majority are receiving the same traditional approach that focuses on the "output"—the speech muscles and sounds—while completely missing what's happening "upstream" in the brain and nervous system.

The real problem isn't that your child needs more speech drills or muscle exercises. The problem is that stress and interference within their nervous system is disrupting the very foundation of how speech develops and functions.

Meet Coen: When Everything Changed

Let me tell you about Coen, whose transformation perfectly illustrates what we're talking about. Before finding Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care, Coen had a severe speech delay with difficulty initiating sounds and very little sound production. His parents were exhausted, searching everywhere for answers beyond traditional speech therapy because everything they read stated that "Coen's struggles were neurological in origin."

They kept asking themselves, "There must be some way to stimulate his nervous system!" When they finally found a PX Doc trained in neurological care, the scans revealed exactly what they suspected—there was a disconnect with how Coen's nervous system was processing information and coordinating actions like movement and speech. His parents said, "Looking through his scans and talking with the doctors, it all made sense why he was struggling and why progress had been very slow."

Then came the breakthrough. About two months into neurologically-focused care, "it seemed like a switch flipped for Coen. He started producing way more sounds than before. He began initiating sounds and words on his own without prompting from others... lately, he has just been talking away!"

Today, Coen has gained about three years of progress in just three months and has finished speech services, having met all his goals in record time.

Understanding How Speech Actually Works: The Three-Step Process You Need to Know

Here's what most parents (and even many providers) don't understand: speech production is a complex, sequential 3-step neurological process.

Step 1: Input

First, sensory and auditory signals are received by the brain. This includes hearing sounds, feeling the position of the tongue and mouth, and processing visual cues from watching others speak.

Step 2: Integration

The brain processes and integrates this information, creating a plan for how to coordinate all the different muscles needed for speech.

Step 3: Output

Finally, the brain sends coordinated signals to speech muscles to produce the desired sounds and words.

Here's the crucial insight: While most people assume speech delays stem from muscle problems in the output stage, the real issues typically occur "upstream" in the brain and nervous system's input and integration phases.

When subluxation and nervous system dysfunction interfere with these early stages, no amount of muscle exercises or speech drills can fully compensate for the neurological breakdown happening in the brain. This is why your child can work so hard in speech therapy but still struggle—you're working on step 3 when the problem is in steps 1 and 2.

The Real Culprits: Understanding Subluxation and Its Impact

Subluxation refers to misalignment and neurological interference within the nervous system that disrupts brain-body communication pathways. This interference:

• Affects nerve signals controlling speech muscles

• Leads to difficulties in motor planning (apraxia)

• Creates abnormal muscle tone and coordination issues in the mouth, face, and respiratory muscles

The connection to birth: Birth interventions like forceps, vacuum extraction, and C-sections can physically injure the delicate upper cervical area and brainstem regions that house critical nerves controlling speech and communication. Even "normal" births can create stress on these vital areas.

The Vagus Nerve: Your Child's Communication Highway

One of the most critical—yet often overlooked—factors in speech development is the vagus nerve. This nerve controls the vocal cords through its recurrent laryngeal branch, and when it's not functioning properly, it leads to:

• Problems with vocalization, pitch, volume, and speech clarity

• Difficulty with the precise coordination of breathing and swallowing required for clear speech

• Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system keeps children stuck in "fight or flight" mode

When the vagus nerve is not working properly, it keeps your child's nervous system in a stressed state, which further exacerbates speech and communication problems. Your child literally cannot access their full communication potential when their nervous system is stuck in survival mode.

Why Speech Delays Signal Deeper Developmental Issues

As a parent, it's important to understand that speech is a complex function that develops only after more foundational milestones have been achieved. These include:

• Nervous system regulation

• Gross motor coordination

• Gut-brain health

• Basic sensory processing

If your child's brain and body are still working on these foundational "projects," they simply don't have the neurological resources available to focus on higher-level functions like speech, socialization, and emotional regulation.

This explains why many children with speech delays also struggle with:

• Digestive issues

• Sleep problems

• Sensory processing challenges

• Missed gross motor milestones

It's all connected through the nervous system. Recognizing this connection empowers you to address the root cause rather than just managing symptoms.

Taking Charge: A Different Approach to Your Child's Speech Development

Understanding the neurological foundations of speech development puts you in the driver's seat of your child's health journey. Here's how a neurologically-focused approach addresses the real root causes:

Step 1: Identifying the "Perfect Storm"

This begins with examining your child's case history, particularly birth trauma and early life stressors that create neurological dysfunction. You know your child's history better than anyone—trust your instincts about what might have contributed to their challenges.

Step 2: Advanced Neurological Assessment

Specialized INSiGHT Neurological Scans can precisely locate and measure subluxation and nervous system dysfunction that conventional providers cannot detect. These scans provide objective data about how your child's nervous system is functioning.

Step 3: Gentle, Specific Care

Through gentle, specific neurologically-focused adjustments, proper nerve function and brain-body communication can be restored, allowing your child's natural speech development to finally unfold as it should.

Your Role as an Empowered Parent

You are your child's best advocate. If traditional speech therapy isn't producing the progress you know your child is capable of, trust your instincts. You have the right to:

• Ask questions about the neurological foundations of your child's speech challenges

• Seek providers who look at the whole child, not just the symptoms

• Explore care that addresses root causes rather than just managing effects

• Expect real progress, not just slow incremental changes

Your child's struggles are not a reflection of your parenting, their effort, or a lack of trying hard enough. They may simply need a different approach—one that addresses the neurological interference preventing their natural abilities from emerging.

Moving Forward with Hope and Purpose

Every child has an innate drive to communicate and connect. When that drive seems blocked or delayed, it's often because something is interfering with their nervous system's ability to coordinate this complex process.

At Live Well Family Chiropractic, we understand that the neurological foundations of speech development doesn't mean abandoning speech therapy—it means ensuring that your child's nervous system is optimized so that traditional therapies can be more effective.

The breakthrough your family has been searching for may be closer than you think. It might just require looking at your child's speech challenges through a different lens—one that honors the complex, incredible connection between the nervous system and communication. So if you’re ready to dive into the true root cause of your child’s speech delays, please reach out to Live Well Family Chiropractic today! Our website is www.livewellchiro.ca

Remember: You know your child best. Trust your instincts, ask the deeper questions, and don't settle for "this is just how it is" when your heart tells you there's more to the story.

You’ve Tried Everything for Speech… Here’s What Everyone Overlooks

You've been there. Sitting in yet another speech therapy appointment, watching your child struggle through the same exercises you've practiced countless times at home. You've followed every recommendation, invested thousands of dollars, and dedicated hours each week to speech drills and muscle exercises. Yet here you are, months or even years later, with your little one still struggling to communicate clearly while other children their age chatter away effortlessly.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone—and more importantly, you're not missing anything as a parent. The gap isn't in your dedication or your child's effort. The missing piece is that nearly 1 in 12 U.S. children ages 3-17 experience voice, speech, language, or swallowing disorders, and the vast majority are receiving the same traditional approach that focuses on the "output"—the speech muscles and sounds—while completely missing what's happening "upstream" in the brain and nervous system.

The real problem isn't that your child needs more speech drills or muscle exercises. The problem is that stress and interference within their nervous system is disrupting the very foundation of how speech develops and functions.

Meet Coen: When Everything Changed

Let me tell you about Coen, whose transformation perfectly illustrates what we're talking about. Before finding Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care, Coen had a severe speech delay with difficulty initiating sounds and very little sound production. His parents were exhausted, searching everywhere for answers beyond traditional speech therapy because everything they read stated that "Coen's struggles were neurological in origin."

They kept asking themselves, "There must be some way to stimulate his nervous system!" When they finally found a PX Doc trained in neurological care, the scans revealed exactly what they suspected—there was a disconnect with how Coen's nervous system was processing information and coordinating actions like movement and speech. His parents said, "Looking through his scans and talking with the doctors, it all made sense why he was struggling and why progress had been very slow."

Then came the breakthrough. About two months into neurologically-focused care, "it seemed like a switch flipped for Coen. He started producing way more sounds than before. He began initiating sounds and words on his own without prompting from others... lately, he has just been talking away!"

Today, Coen has gained about three years of progress in just three months and has finished speech services, having met all his goals in record time.

Understanding How Speech Actually Works: The Three-Step Process You Need to Know

Here's what most parents (and even many providers) don't understand: speech production is a complex, sequential 3-step neurological process.

Step 1: Input

First, sensory and auditory signals are received by the brain. This includes hearing sounds, feeling the position of the tongue and mouth, and processing visual cues from watching others speak.

Step 2: Integration

The brain processes and integrates this information, creating a plan for how to coordinate all the different muscles needed for speech.

Step 3: Output

Finally, the brain sends coordinated signals to speech muscles to produce the desired sounds and words.

Here's the crucial insight: While most people assume speech delays stem from muscle problems in the output stage, the real issues typically occur "upstream" in the brain and nervous system's input and integration phases.

When subluxation and nervous system dysfunction interfere with these early stages, no amount of muscle exercises or speech drills can fully compensate for the neurological breakdown happening in the brain. This is why your child can work so hard in speech therapy but still struggle—you're working on step 3 when the problem is in steps 1 and 2.

The Real Culprits: Understanding Subluxation and Its Impact

Subluxation refers to misalignment and neurological interference within the nervous system that disrupts brain-body communication pathways. This interference:

• Affects nerve signals controlling speech muscles

• Leads to difficulties in motor planning (apraxia)

• Creates abnormal muscle tone and coordination issues in the mouth, face, and respiratory muscles

• 
  

The connection to birth: Birth interventions like forceps, vacuum extraction, and C-sections can physically injure the delicate upper cervical area and brainstem regions that house critical nerves controlling speech and communication. Even "normal" births can create stress on these vital areas.

The Vagus Nerve: Your Child's Communication Highway

One of the most critical—yet often overlooked—factors in speech development is the vagus nerve. This nerve controls the vocal cords through its recurrent laryngeal branch, and when it's not functioning properly, it leads to:

• Problems with vocalization, pitch, volume, and speech clarity

• Difficulty with the precise coordination of breathing and swallowing required for clear speech

• Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system keeps children stuck in "fight or flight" mode

  
  

When the vagus nerve is not working properly, it keeps your child's nervous system in a stressed state, which further exacerbates speech and communication problems. Your child literally cannot access their full communication potential when their nervous system is stuck in survival mode.

Why Speech Delays Signal Deeper Developmental Issues

As a parent, it's important to understand that speech is a complex function that develops only after more foundational milestones have been achieved. These include:

• Nervous system regulation

• Gross motor coordination

• Gut-brain health

• Basic sensory processing

  
  

If your child's brain and body are still working on these foundational "projects," they simply don't have the neurological resources available to focus on higher-level functions like speech, socialization, and emotional regulation.

This explains why many children with speech delays also struggle with:

• Digestive issues

• Sleep problems

• Sensory processing challenges

• Missed gross motor milestones

  
  

It's all connected through the nervous system. Recognizing this connection empowers you to address the root cause rather than just managing symptoms.

Taking Charge: A Different Approach to Your Child's Speech Development

Understanding the neurological foundations of speech development puts you in the driver's seat of your child's health journey. Here's how a neurologically-focused approach addresses the real root causes:

Step 1: Identifying the "Perfect Storm"

This begins with examining your child's case history, particularly birth trauma and early life stressors that create neurological dysfunction. You know your child's history better than anyone—trust your instincts about what might have contributed to their challenges.

Step 2: Advanced Neurological Assessment

Specialized INSiGHT Neurological Scans can precisely locate and measure subluxation and nervous system dysfunction that conventional providers cannot detect. These scans provide objective data about how your child's nervous system is functioning.

Step 3: Gentle, Specific Care

Through gentle, specific neurologically-focused adjustments, proper nerve function and brain-body communication can be restored, allowing your child's natural speech development to finally unfold as it should.

Your Role as an Empowered Parent

You are your child's best advocate. If traditional speech therapy isn't producing the progress you know your child is capable of, trust your instincts. You have the right to:

• Ask questions about the neurological foundations of your child's speech challenges

• Seek providers who look at the whole child, not just the symptoms

• Explore care that addresses root causes rather than just managing effects

• Expect real progress, not just slow incremental changes

  
  

Your child's struggles are not a reflection of your parenting, their effort, or a lack of trying hard enough. They may simply need a different approach—one that addresses the neurological interference preventing their natural abilities from emerging.

Moving Forward with Hope and Purpose

Every child has an innate drive to communicate and connect. When that drive seems blocked or delayed, it's often because something is interfering with their nervous system's ability to coordinate this complex process.

At Live Well Family Chiropractic, we understand that the neurological foundations of speech development doesn't mean abandoning speech therapy—it means ensuring that your child's nervous system is optimized so that traditional therapies can be more effective.

The breakthrough your family has been searching for may be closer than you think. It might just require looking at your child's speech challenges through a different lens—one that honors the complex, incredible connection between the nervous system and communication. So if you’re ready to dive into the true root cause of your child’s speech delays, please reach out to Live Well Family Chiropractic today!

Remember: You know your child best. Trust your instincts, ask the deeper questions, and don't settle for "this is just how it is" when your heart tells you there's more to the story.