How to Help a Dysregulated Nervous System

Why So Many Kids Struggle and How Chiropractic Care Restores Balance

“My child just isn’t themselves… but no one can really tell me why.”

If you’ve ever had that thought while watching your child struggle with anxiety, meltdowns, tummy troubles, or restless nights—you are not alone. And no, you’re not imagining it.

What many parents don’t realize is that these struggles often come from a common root: a dysregulated nervous system. Today, nearly 1 in 6 children is affected. With constant stress from birth interventions, toxins, processed foods, screens, and overstimulation, more kids than ever are stuck in survival mode—anxious, reactive, and overwhelmed.

Here’s the truth: most checkups don’t evaluate the nervous system. Families get shuffled between specialists—one for digestion, another for behavior, another for sleep—without anyone asking the crucial question: How is your child’s nervous system functioning?

At Soma Chiropractic, that’s where we start.

Understanding Chronic Nervous System Dysregulation

To understand why so many kids struggle, you need to understand the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). This system controls all involuntary functions—breathing, heart rate, digestion, immune response, and more.

The ANS has two branches:

• Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): the “fight or flight” response.

• Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS): the “rest, regulate, and digest” side.

Think of them as the gas and brake pedals in a car. The sympathetic system revs the body up under stress, while the parasympathetic system slows things down to heal and restore.

In a well-regulated nervous system, these two systems work in balance. But when stress builds, the gas pedal gets stuck down, the brakes fail, and the nervous system falls into dysregulation—locked in survival mode.

Where It Starts: The “Perfect Storm”

Dysregulation doesn’t usually appear overnight. It builds over time through what we call the Perfect Storm of stressors:

• Prenatal stress: Research shows high levels of maternal cortisol and stress hormones cross the placenta, affecting a baby’s developing brain and nervous system. This can prime a child for hypersensitivity later in life.

• Birth trauma: Even normal deliveries put up to 90 pounds of pressure on a newborn’s head and neck. Interventions such as forceps, vacuum extraction, or C-section multiply that strain. These events often leave behind subluxation, which immediately disrupts nervous system function.

• Subluxation: More than just a structural issue, this is neurological interference that blocks proper regulation, communication, and adaptability of the nervous system.

• Childhood stressors: Processed foods, antibiotics, toxins, screens, overstimulation, and emotional upheavals can lead to dysregulation.

Together, these stressors keep the sympathetic system in overdrive. Without the calming influence of the parasympathetic side, the brain and body remain stuck in high alert.

Everyday Signs of a Dysregulated Nervous System

When a child’s nervous system is locked in hyperarousal, it impacts every part of life:

Physical signs

• Chronic fatigue despite “enough” sleep

• Frequent headaches or stomachaches

• Constipation, reflux, or diarrhea

• Muscle tension and pain

• Frequent illness or slow recovery

• Motor delays or clumsiness

Emotional signs

• Anxiety and constant worry

• Mood swings and irritability

• Frequent meltdowns

• Low frustration tolerance

Behavioral signs

• Hyperactivity, restlessness, impulsivity (often mistaken for ADHD)

• Difficulty focusing or sitting still

• Extreme shyness, withdrawal, or aggression when overwhelmed

Cognitive signs

• Brain fog, poor short-term memory

• Difficulty processing and retaining information

• Trouble planning, organizing, and following through

These are not personality flaws. They are red flags of a nervous system stuck in survival mode.

The Vagus Nerve Connection

At the heart of nervous system regulation is the vagus nerve, often called the “wandering nerve.” Running from the brainstem through the chest and abdomen, it’s the main communication highway between the brain and the body.

The vagus nerve helps coordinate digestion, heart rate, immune defense, and emotional regulation. When it’s firing properly, kids can calm down after stress, sleep deeply, digest well, and fight off illness.

But when the vagus nerve is underactive or out of sync, it’s like air traffic control losing its signal. Messages between the brain and body get scrambled, leading to digestive problems, frequent sickness, emotional outbursts, anxiety, and trouble connecting socially.

How Dys-regulation Links to Diagnoses

Just because your child has a diagnosis doesn’t mean nervous system dysregulation isn’t part of the picture. In fact, it often magnifies challenges:

• Autism & Sensory Processing Disorders: Fight-or-flight keeps sensory sensitivities high, transitions harder, and developmental progress slower.

• Anxiety & Depression: Chronic sympathetic overdrive locks kids in stress, making emotional regulation nearly impossible.

• ADHD: A nervous system wired for danger prioritizes scanning for threats instead of focusing, driving impulsivity and restlessness.

• POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome): A dysregulated ANS struggles to manage blood pressure and heart rate, causing dizziness, fatigue, and brain fog.

• PANDAS: Immune triggers (like strep) lead to sudden mood and behavior changes. When the nervous system is already dysregulated, these reactions intensify.

• Other health issues: Chronic inflammation, poor sleep, constipation, recurring ear infections.

Addressing nervous system health doesn’t replace a diagnosis—but it helps kids adapt, heal, and function at their fullest potential.

Natural Ways to Support Nervous System Balance

Families can begin supporting nervous system regulation at home with simple strategies:

• Deep belly breathing to activate the vagus nerve

• Cold water therapy (face splashes, showers, or foot baths)

• Humming, singing, or gargling to stimulate vagus activity

• Yoga, meditation, or mindfulness for calming the limbic system

• Decluttering and reducing noise at home

• Clear screen-time limits—especially before bed

• Consistent sleep routines and plenty of downtime

• Healthy, safe relationships that reduce chronic stress

These tools help calm things in the moment, but often don’t bring lasting change because they work from the outside-in. To truly restore regulation, the root cause—nervous system interference—must be addressed.

Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care at Soma Chiropractic

This is where we specialize. At Soma Chiropractic, we directly measure and restore nervous system function.

We use advanced INSiGHT™ scans to get a detailed look at your child’s nervous system:

• Thermal scans: measure temperature differences along the spine to identify inflammation and autonomic imbalance.

• Surface electromyography (sEMG): measures electrical activity in spinal muscles to detect areas of tension and fatigue.

• Heart Rate Variability (HRV): measures how well the nervous system adapts between fight-or-flight and rest-and-digest.

These scans are quick, safe, and non-invasive—even for newborns. They give us an objective roadmap of where stress is stored and how to restore balance.

With this data, we create a personalized care plan. Our adjustments are gentle—about the same pressure you’d use to check a tomato or place a contact lens. Babies often nap during care.

As subluxations clear, families often notice:

• Deeper, more restful sleep

• Calmer digestion

• Fewer illnesses

• Improved focus and mood

• Greater adaptability and resilience

It’s like fixing the wiring in a house: once the nervous system is restored, every connected system starts working the way it was designed.

The Path Forward

You haven’t failed your child—you simply weren’t given the full playbook. Once you add a nervous system expert to the team, progress finally makes sense.

At Soma Chiropractic, we help kids shift from survival mode to thriving with gentle, measurable, root-cause care. If your intuition says something is off, trust it. The sooner we restore balance, the sooner your child can sleep, digest, focus, and flourish.

✨ Your instincts matter. Your child’s nervous system matters. Taking action early matters most of all.

📍 Schedule your consultation today—let’s start rebuilding calm, confidence, and health from the inside out.