The road that led Dr. Sonia McGowin to become a chiropractor, working with children with challenges such as autism and cerebral palsy, can be traced back to her fight to find alternatives to help her own son, Roan.
When Roan was 6 months old, he stopped sleeping and developed a lot of what could be described as "troublesome behaviors" as he got older, including severe speech delay.
"I was very worried about him because he went from being an essentially normal infant to having all these problems just snowballing," McGowin said.
She took him to several physicians, "And my mom's intuition told me that something wasn't right."
While she was working with children who had autism at this time and knew about challenges those children faced, McGowin said none of the specialist she took Roan to offered much hope for improvement.
"Everybody said he's not developing appropriately because of several factors, and I should just forget about my concerns, go home and love him," McGowin said. "I knew there was a typical kid inside all of those behaviors, and I wasn't going to leave any stone unturned."
As this was going on, McGowin was interested in changing careers. She still wanted to work with children with autism, but from more of a medical perspective.
"I learned that autism wasn't genetic, necessarily, that there were a lot of environmental factors that influence the genetics that can lead to the diagnosis of autism," McGowin said.
That led McGowin to leave Jefferson City and go to chiropractic school in Kansas City. Roan was 14 months old when she began.
"I'm not sure why I thought I could do it, but I was hell-bent that I wanted to make a difference for kids with autism, and I wanted to figure out what was going on with my son," McGowin said.
While she was going to school, Roan continued to get worse.
"I had a kid who was devolving," McGowin said. "By the time he was 2, he had no language skills, was covered in eczema, and he never slept. I was watching him slip away toward a diagnosis I didn't want.
"So I dug my heels in and said, 'This is not going to happen to my kid,'" McGowin said.
She eventually figured out Roan had medical issues no one had tested for before. They found he had an intestinal infection -- a yeast overgrowth in his intestine -- and McGowin said that was leading to him having the developmental issues.
"We found he had a lot of food sensitivities, and once we changed his diet and got him on a good treatment protocol, he changed," McGowin said. "Within days, he started sleeping all night and the words came in a flood. At age 4, only 5 percent of his language skills would be considered intelligible, but by 51/2, when he got to kindergarten, he had normal language and social skills."
McGowin considers Roan her first recovery story. She started her practice in Jefferson City in 2010 and primarily works with children with developmental disabilities. Her patients are from all across the country and other parts of the globe. She has been doing tele-med long before the COVID-19 pandemic made that into a viable option for offering medical information and treatment.
"I was doing Zoom before Zoom was cool," McGowin laughed. "I'm probably better known in Ireland and other countries than here in Jefferson City. Because I lived it, and I know how close I came to my own son having an autism diagnosis, that makes me a better doctor for the families who come to me for help now."
For people to know there are alternative ways to deal with problems Roan had has been the biggest reason for parents to seek out McGowin.
"What I tell parents is there are no purposeless behaviors," McGowin said. "If you have a child who has anxiety or behavior issues, there is a reason for that, and we have to look at chemistry first."
McGowin said she's found many times children have poor digestion and that leads to deficiency and affecting their bio-chemistry.
"My husband says I'm like a dog on a bone because once I figure something has to be done," McGowin laughed. "I'm pretty stubborn about figuring things out."
The children coming to McGowin today have similar stories as Roan's.
"Some are non-verbal and some never sleep," McGowin said. "I'm working with a 4-year-old girl now who is typically developing, except she had a rapid onset of severe anxiety. She wouldn't talk to family members because it was too scary for her.
McGowin said she tells families as far as developmental issues, "Genetics load the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger. So you can have a genetic predisposition to something, but if you have a super clean diet, use non-toxic household cleaners and live a fairly clean lifestyle those genetics don't necessarily manifest. But there could be an illness or infection that triggers those genetics to show their faces."
McGowin's staff has gone from two to seven, and they're expanding their offices. Along with the pediatric and pre-natal chiropractic therapy, they will be offering hyperbaric oxygen treatment which can used for treatment of any neurological problems such as autism or attention deficit disorder.
"Once you make a difference in the life of a family with a kid with autism, the word spreads like wildfire," McGowin said. "Families just refer one after another to us because they know we can get good results."
McGowin got emotional when she said, "I never wanted another mom to feel as alone as I did when my son was so sick. That really pushes me because I know how they feel. I don't want them to feel the next doctor will pat them on their head and shoo them off. I want families to come here and know we'll listen to them and believe them when they say there is something wrong with their child.
"Going at it with that perspective and with that kind of integrity, I feel like, 'How can I not be successful,'" McGowin added. "I'm not in it for the money or notoriety. Whoever I'm sitting in front of at that time, they're my priority."