Is Your Child’s "General" Getting Bad Intel? Why "Bad Radio Signals" Cause Meltdowns and Sleep Struggles

Imagine your child’s brain is a General sitting in a high-tech war room. This General has one job: to keep the body safe and healthy. To do this, the General relies on the Troops—the eyes, ears, muscles, organs, joints, and many parts of their peripheral nervous system—scouting out in the field (the body) to send back clear reports.

When the Troops radio back, "All clear, General," the General can relax. He tells the body to digest food, sleep peacefully, and grow. This is when our child is calm or in homeostasis.

But what happens if the radio lines get cut? What happens if the General gets static instead of clear intel?

In our practice, we see this scenario play out in children every day. It’s not that the child is "bad" or "broken." It’s that their General is operating on bad intelligence. Here is the 4-step neurological sequence that explains why your child might be stuck in stress mode.

1. The Radio Jammer: Dyskinesia

It starts surprisingly early—usually as early as birth. Physical stress from a difficult labor, C-section, or forceps delivery can start the cascade of negative neurological effects in your child.

In the medical world, we call this Dyskinesia. Think of it as a "jammed" joint. It’s not necessarily painful, but it acts like someone pinching the antenna of a walkie-talkie. The signal from the Troops to the General starts to get fuzzy.

2. The Glitch: Dysafferentation

When the spine isn’t moving correctly, the "scouts" (nerves) can’t relay accurate maps of the body back to the brain. Instead of sending clear, calming signals (Proprioception), they start sending loud, static-filled "noise" (Nociception).

We call this Dysafferentation. It’s the neurological equivalent of "Garbage In, Garbage Out." The General is sitting in the war room, and instead of hearing "All quiet on the western front," he’s hearing static, screeching, and garbled messages. He doesn't know if the noise is a tiger, a fire, or just a loose sock—but he can't take the risk.

3. The Panic: Dysautonomia

Because the General is getting bad intel and loud noise, he assumes the worst. He hits the big red button on the desk: PANIC.

This is Dysautonomia. The brain shifts the entire nervous system into a state of Sympathetic Dominance. This is the "Gas Pedal" or "Fight or Flight" mode.

• The heart races.

• Digestion stops (causing colic or constipation).

• Sleep becomes impossible (because you can't sleep in a war zone).

The General keeps the foot jammed on the gas pedal because he believes there is a threat, even if the "threat" is just a jammed radio signal from the neck.

4. The Waste: Dysponesis

Now, the Troops are in chaos. They are running drills, building bunkers, and firing ammo at invisible enemies. The body is expending massive amounts of energy fighting a war that doesn't exist.

We call this Dysponesis, which literally means "errors in energy output". This is why your child might be exhausted yet wired, hyperactive, or anxious. Their system is burning fuel inefficiently, leaving them drained and prone to illness because their immune system is depleted from the constant battle.

The Solution? Fixing the Radio

Parents often try to help the General by changing the environment—darker rooms, stricter schedules, or different diets. While these help, they address the environment, not the communication lines.

As Neurological Chiropractors, our job isn’t to tell the General how to do his job. Our job is to fix the radio.

By using gentle, specific adjustments, we correct the Dyskinesia (the jam). This clears the Dysafferentation (the static), allowing the Troops to finally send the message: "All clear, General."

Once the General gets the right intel, he naturally takes his foot off the gas pedal. The panic (Dysautonomia) subsides, the energy waste (Dysponesis) stops, and your child’s body can finally go back to growing, sleeping, and healing.

Is your child's General stuck in the war room? If this sounds like your child, we can help. We use advanced scanning technology to measure exactly how much static is on the line and where the radio is jammed.

Schedule your scan today and let’s help your child find "At Ease!"