The Victorian Health Minister has demanded regulators take action against a Melbourne chiropractor who posted a video of himself performing controversial treatments on a two-week-old baby.

Key points: The practice of spinal manipulation in infants is not illegal but is controversial in medical circles

The practice of spinal manipulation in infants is not illegal but is controversial in medical circles The Victorian Health Minister says the video is "disturbing"

The Victorian Health Minister says the video is "disturbing" The Chiropractic Board of Australia says it is aware of the video and is assessing concerns about it

In the video, posted to Cranbourne Family Chiropractic's Facebook page in August, Andrew Arnold is shown manipulating the baby's back, hips and collarbone, repeatedly tapping on his head, and holding him upside down by his legs.

Mr Arnold uses a spring-loaded chiropractic device called an "activator" on the baby, warning in the video: "He is going to squawk a bit."

The baby is shown crying as Mr Arnold applies the device to his neck, tailbone and spine.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the footage was "deeply disturbing".

"It's appalling that young children and infants are being exposed to potential harm," she said.

Andrew Arnold did not speak to journalists outside his workplace this morning. ( ABC News )

"That's why I've written to the Chiropractic Board of Australia and AHPRA (the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) to urge them to take the necessary action.

"The Chiropractic Board of Australia must condemn this practice as unprofessional and unacceptable, and AHPRA must act quickly to stop these rogue practitioners in their tracks."

Ms Mikakos said while the kind of spinal manipulation shown in the video was not illegal, there was "no credible substantiating evidence" for such practices, and medical groups including the Royal Australian College of GPs and the Royal Australian College of Physicians had cautioned against their use in infants.

"There is nothing at the moment that prevents chiropractors from undertaking these risky practices, and this is why I'm urging them to issue urgent advice to all of their members — to all chiropractors in Australia — about the risks of these types of practices," she said.

"The advice that I've received is that the risk of undertaking spinal manipulation on small infants far outweighs any perceived benefit.

"Newborn babies are extremely fragile and it's important to be aware that the damage done to an infant may not be immediately obvious to parents and may not manifest until years later."

President of the Australian Medical Association's Victorian branch Julian Rait said he was "rather concerned" by the video.

Dr Rait said while the practice was not illegal, regulators had taken action against a chiropractor carrying out similar treatments three years ago.

"To see it again three years later after we've already drawn attention to the potential risks of this particular treatment is rather disturbing to us," he said.

He said there was not sufficient evidence of the benefits of spinal manipulation to balance the dangers, which included the risk of paralysis and bleeding in the brain.

"We think the equation of risk-benefit is very much tilted towards risk in this case, and that's why we'd seriously discourage anyone from having spinal manipulation of their babies," he said.

Chiropractic board assessing concerns

The practice of spinal manipulation is controversial across all ages, because of the potential for harm. In adults, there is a risk of stroke and tearing in the inner lining of an artery in the neck and in children, there have been reports of bleeding in the brain and paraplegia.

Paediatrician Jacqueline Small said there was a risk that the spinal growth plates in newborns — the bits in between the vertebrae — might be damaged by spinal manipulation.

A 2012 Cochrane Collaboration review of manipulative therapies for infantile colic, which included six randomised trials involving 325 infants, concluded that the studies were too small and of "insufficient quality" to draw confident conclusions.

"Although five of the six trials suggested crying is reduced by treatment with manipulative therapies, there was no evidence of manipulative therapies improving infant colic when we only included studies where the parents did not know if their child had received the treatment or not," the review authors wrote.

The video was originally posted on the Cranbourne chiropractor's own Facebook page. ( ABC News: James Hancock )

The Chiropractic Board of Australia said it was aware of the video and the concerns that had been raised about it and was assessing these concerns.

"The board has made a strong statement about the care of children and has written to every chiropractor in Australia to warn them to comply with their professional and ethical obligations, which are clearly outlined in the board's code of conduct for chiropractors," it said in a statement.

"The board has acted against chiropractors who fail to meet their obligations by limiting their registration when they fail to meet the expected standards."

The president of the Australian Chiropractors Association, Anthony Coxon, told ABC Radio Melbourne he was "disturbed" by some of what was shown in the video, and he welcomed the investigation by the chiropractic board and AHPRA.

"There are things within that video that I have concerns over," he said.

Mr Arnold declined to comment when he arrived at the clinic this morning.

The video has since been removed from the clinic's Facebook page.

As she arrived at the centre this morning, patient Vanessa Daeche said she had been very happy with the treatment Mr Arnold had given her and her children, starting when the children were teenagers.

"I haven't seen the video … but I have three children, and I know how horrible it can be when they don't sleep properly," she said.

"I think if you had a baby, and the trauma that a baby goes through in birth, and then you have a baby that suffers colic, and doesn't sleep properly — there is more to it than I think people realise," she said.