If your child struggles or has struggled with constipation, you know how hard it is to see them struggle and be uncomfortable.  It is heartbreaking to see them in pain.

 Conventional tools for constipation are things like proper hydration, prunes, adding vegetables if appropriate, probiotics, belly massages and your doctor may prescribe Restoralax, Miralax, or some other type of suppository.

While these tools may be useful, they may not be getting to the root of the issue.  Of course, if their nutrition and hydration are off, we need to address these as well, but one of the most overlooked ROOT CAUSE is the function of their nervous system.

If we think of how our body works, we take in food and water, it enters the digestive tract and is moved through the intestinal tract. This movement does not depend on gravity to exit the body.  It depends on smooth muscle contractions that pulsate the waste through and out.  That smooth muscle contracts due to nerve supply from the vagus nerve. 

That vagus nerve comes off the brainstem and through a tiny hole in your skull, and down through the front of your neck into the abdominal cavity.  It regulates most of your organs and is a parasympathetic nerve that works to digest food, among so many other functions.

 If there is dysfunction in the nerve – often times this stems from an upper neck injury from birth, especially assisted birth using medical interventions, it can negatively impact the function of the vagus nerve and the result can be anything from reflux, to colic, to poor sleep, constipation, and other struggles. 

Healing the nervous system FIRST is foundational to overall healing, whether it be due to an injury of the vagus nerve, or supportive nerves of the body, we must heal this first to get maximum function to return.