Dr. John Edwards, DC, Cape Coral, Florida knew he wanted to be a chiropractic doctor at an early age. A distinguished academic career included graduating Magna Cum Laude from Truman State University and then enrolling at Palmer College of Chiropractic in 2000. While serving as the class treasurer at Palmer, Dr. Edwards lobbied the U.S. Congress as a representative for the student chapter of The American Chiropractic Association. He also worked at The National Institute of Health’s Center for Chiropractic Research at Palmer College.
After graduating Dr. Edwards was recruited to the Gold Coast of Australia where he was tasked with helping to develop a sports chiropractic clinic. While working in Australia he met a little boy named Harry who had just recently undergone abdominal surgery to repair his large intestine and as a result had to take daily medication to induce bowel movements. His mother Tara had brought Harry into see if chiropractic treatments might be of help.
Tara brought Harry in the clinic to visit Dr. Edwards over the course of two weeks. Dr. Edwards told the mother he could not guarantee any result, but explained if the boy’s nerve flow wasn’t right his recovery from the surgery might not be complete. After the sixth treatment and the seventh visit to his office little Harry declared “My Superpowers Are On!” For the first time in his life Harry had bowel movements without medication. From that point forward every time Harry would visit Dr. Edwards he would ask him if he was ready to get his super powers switched on. The gratification of helping the little boy live a normal life is what convinced Dr. Edwards that he would devote his practice to Pediatric Chiropractic care. After practicing in Illinois for five years he opened Mama’s Chiropractic Clinic in Cape Coral, Florida in 2011.
“Every chiropractor has their miracle cases,” Dr. Edwards explained. “The most remarkable ones are the small things. You’ll have children come into the office who are diagnosed with things like autism or sensory processing disorders and it’s really tough for the other family members to bond with them. Out of the blue they start giving mom a hug. Those little things like that are a lot more subtle and not everybody picks up on it and it doesn’t make great headlines. Or perhaps having a child who’s crawling funny with a leg sticking out suddenly being able to crawl with both legs. You don’t see what that’s going to do long term,” Dr. Edwards elaborated.
“When the child gets into school and they are having problems reading and having problems with writing, maybe they are doing their letters backwards because of the brain development during that crawling period. If you can catch that kind of stuff early you don’t even notice the downstream impacts. The child reads normally and writes normally and nobody thinks anything different. Those are the victories that I celebrate and have a little private celebration inside,” he continued. “I know what I have done has really impacted the life of that child.”
Dr. Edwards says that the adjustments given to children are not the same of those given to adults. “It looks a lot like playing. A lot of times the parents don’t even know what I’ve done has corrected the child until we’ve done a reassessment. It basically looks like I’m just sitting there with a child’s head in my hands while they are laying in my lap. The actual adjustment itself gets modified because we have different biomechanical considerations.”
Dr. Edwards emphasizes that chiropractic adjustments on infants with conditions such as ear infections, colic, reflux or sleep disorders are quite effective. He also adds that Pediatric Chiropractors are not pushing on a “magic button” in children to make a problem go away. He will adjust the same area for children who are suffering from different conditions, but the end result will be the alleviation of the child’s symptoms. It comes down to adjusting neural pathways and allowing the body to function unimpeded.
Oftentimes parents need a reorientation away from the traditional medical model to one that relies less on the medicine cabinet to mask symptoms. “Breaking through that paradigm for parents is really the first challenge for me,” remarked Dr. Edwards. “What we are trying to achieve is clear expression in the child so they can maximize their potential.”
What should parents look for when trying to decide on a good Pediatric Chiropractor? “When visiting an office you should see a lot of toys, you should see a lot of pictures, it’s supposed to be fun. You can always tell if you’re talking to a good Pediatric Chiropractor because the knees on the pants are a little bit thinner, they are playing with the kids all the time. It just looks like they are having a lot of fun with the kids. It’s not a very cut and dry clinical picture. Kids get enough of that going to a Pediatricians office.”
Dr. Edwards hopes parents with children who experience a childhood health dysfunction will consider a Pediatric Chiropractor. He says that a good place to start is with the website: http://www.ICPA4kids.org. Look for the “Find A Chiropractor” link. The search function will allow you to search by zip code and the distance you are willing to drive. The search results also get broken down by the level of pediatric training a chiropractor has. “You should at least be able to find people who are interested in working with families that you can build a lifetime relationship with that have a focus on you and your children.”
Dr. Edwards can be contacted directly at his Cape Coral, FL practice by calling (239) 549-6262. His clinic website is: http://www.mamaschiropractic.com.