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Osteopathy thoughts please

6 replies

chegirl · 13/05/2009 22:33

I have a DS who has various additional needs. He has learning difficulties and very severe eczema. He suffered early neglect by his birth mum and his first two years were chaotic and stressful. When he was a baby it was thought he had physcial problems. They turned out to be trauma related and he is now fine in that department.

I used to take him to the osteopathy clinic when he was a baby and I was fostering him. I did it as part of a wholesale attempt to give him the very best chance. I was also only giving him organic food etc etc. I am not even sure about the thinking round all this. I sort of followed my instincts and tried everything I could (I am not a prof foster carer, we are related so he was placed with us).

Anyhoo - recently things have been a bit difficult for him. He is now 6 and the whole statement thing is starting. His differences and developement delays are becomeing more obvious and his skin is flaring up again. I remebered the osteopathy clinic as a lovely, calm and positive place. So I have decided to take him again.

We stopped going when my DD was diagnosed with cancer and I had to stop everything not connected to her treatment.

So I guess what I am asking is (and this may sound really stoopid) why am I doing this? I have to admit I dont really know what they are doing to him. I know it doesnt hurt him, he doesnt mind it, I feel I am doing something to help him, they are very nice to us and because its a charity it is not rinsing me out (as the young people put it). He also gets to go on a tube which he finds hugely exciting.

Downsides?

It means he will miss a certain amount of school
It does cost some money (plus travel) and we are skint
I get quite emotional as it brings up a lot about his past and reminds me that my DD is no longer with us.

So I would welcome comments, ideas and maybe explainations if at all possible.

Ta

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
thumbwitch · 13/05/2009 23:19

what sort of osteopathy clinic, chegirl? is it cranial osteopathy?

Sounds like you are doing a wonderful job of caring for your DS and your instincts are serving you well.

Osteopathy is not my specialist area, despite having been treated by one for 11 years - but I do know something about it. The general idea is to re-balance the body to allow it to function better. Various problems can be linked to imbalances in the body's structure, things you wouldn't automatically think of.

For e.g. there is a big connection between the lower back and the function of the gut - IBS and some gut disorders can sometimes be successfully treated by osteopathy (although diet frequently plays a large part too). There can also be a connection between gut function and eczema - imbalances in the gut can create a situation where the immune system goes into overdrive and starts breaking out in auto-immune ways - eczema and psoriasis are quite common ones.

Cranial osteopathy is even more about balancing and de-stressing tissues than normal osteopathy. I took DS to a cranial osteo when he was a couple of weeks old because he had a very fast birth (eventually!) and was having some trouble "unfolding" from his in utero position - it made quite a lot of difference to him imo.

Tissues do have memory of stressors - removing the stress from the tissues can be immensely helpful in allowing the body to rebalance itself.

I hope that helps you - I can get a chiropracter MNer to come and make more sense for you if you would like?

chegirl · 14/05/2009 13:33

HI Thumb Thanks for your reply. You have confirmed what I had sort of worked out (confused emoticon) .I dont think its cranial, only because the clinic just refers to osteopathy and does not specify cranial osteopathy.

I take him to the children's clinic near farringdon. They are lovely there.

They did say that they felt he was 'buzzing' which I found upsetting. I feel so angry for him and what he went through. I get the feeling that he is so confused about the world around him and every day is a sort of battle.

He is not depressed or unhappy though. I think life is very hard work for him.

They did think they could help with his exzema and its possible that his learning difficulties too depending on why he has them.

I suppose I am puzzled by it all because I cant actually see anything going on. Its all very calm and non invasive. What are they doing? What are they feeling and how?

OP posts:
thumbwitch · 14/05/2009 22:50

chegirl, I can't tell you what they are feeling but I can tell you, as a bodywork thchegirl, I can't tell you what they are feeling but I can tell you, as a bodywork therapist myself, that I do feel something.
This is going to sound weird, I expect, and if anyone who doesn't "believe" sees it I will probably be shot down in flames, but it is my experience and belief, so here goes.

We are all complex systems, running on energy. By this, I don't mean excitedness, I mean electricity, we all have measurable electrical activity in our muscles, our brains, our nerves - think of the alpha waves in the brain, think of the neurons firing at the speed of light, think of the inbuilt pacemaker of the heart that makes it beat and more. Without energy/electricity we are nothing, i.e. we are dead. But even with it, it needs to be in balance - lack of balance causes problems.

When you do a lot of bodywork, you become finely tuned to feeling when something is different, or not quite right. You then do something therapeutic to make it right again. Cranial osteopathy is a great example of this - I have had it done to me, and although it feels like nothing much has been done physically, the energetic change in my body has been enormous.

If your DS was said to be "buzzing", it suggests to me that his energy is firing too much, randomly, and out of control. This will upset the balance of the body and have knock-on effects on his health, to say nothing of making him hyperactive and difficult to manage, plus probably with lots of mood swings and even sudden rages.

I work a lot with the energy lines that are used in acupuncture (something else you might like to try as it has good results in energy imbalance) - I have a fear of needles so never learned actual acupuncture - and if an energy line is "blocked", then there will be some kind of problem associated with that blockage.

I have described on the HCP lounge thread a case I had this week where using an energy point on the foot, for the solar plexus, caused a massive emotional energy release in my client, leading to her being in tears (but good ones) and immediate physical improvements in the muscle tensions around her chest and shoulders.

I am not an airy fairy person, I am a biomedical scientist by training, and this all makes perfect sense to me, because I have seen the effects.

Another thing that may help is to look at his diet - there is a lot of work being done with children with for e.g. ADHD and ASD in terms of esssential fatty acids, wheat and dairy intolerances, micronutrient deficiencies, and good results can be achieved by dietary change. Eczema in particular can be often linked to a dairy intolerance.

You say the trauma has all been resolved - if there is any residual trauma in the tissues (not his brain) then cranial osteopathy can help to relieve that as well - it is the most amazing treatment and even I am in awe of the good practitioners of it!

I hope you can get the help you need and I hope I have been of some help here too. Feel free to ask more questions - if you want to ask them more privately, email me on thumbwitch @ live dot co dot uk (iyswim)erapist myself, that I do feel something.
This is going to sound weird, I expect, and if anyone who doesn't "believe" sees it I will probably be shot down in flames, but it is my experience and belief, so here goes.

We are all complex systems, running on energy. By this, I don't mean excitedness, I mean electricity, we all have measurable electrical activity in our muscles, our brains, our nerves - think of the alpha waves in the brain, think of the neurons firing at the speed of light, think of the inbuilt pacemaker of the heart that makes it beat and more. Without energy/electricity we are nothing, i.e. we are dead. But even with it, it needs to be in balance - lack of balance causes problems.

When you do a lot of bodywork, you become finely tuned to feeling when something is different, or not quite right. You then do something therapeutic to make it right again. Cranial osteopathy is a great example of this - I have had it done to me, and although it feels like nothing much has been done physically, the energetic change in my body has been enormous.

If your DS was said to be "buzzing", it suggests to me that his energy is firing too much, randomly, and out of control. This will upset the balance of the body and have knock-on effects on his health, to say nothing of making him hyperactive and difficult to manage, plus probably with lots of mood swings and even sudden rages.

I work a lot with the energy lines that are used in acupuncture (something else you might like to try as it has good results in energy imbalance) - I have a fear of needles so never learned actual acupuncture - and if an energy line is "blocked", then there will be some kind of problem associated with that blockage.

I have described on the HCP lounge thread a case I had this week where using an energy point on the foot, for the solar plexus, caused a massive emotional energy release in my client, leading to her being in tears (but good ones) and immediate physical improvements in the muscle tensions around her chest and shoulders.

I am not an airy fairy person, I am a biomedical scientist by training, and this all makes perfect sense to me, because I have seen the effects.

Another thing that may help is to look at his diet - there is a lot of work being done with children with for e.g. ADHD and ASD in terms of esssential fatty acids, wheat and dairy intolerances, micronutrient deficiencies, and good results can be achieved by dietary change. Eczema in particular can be often linked to a dairy intolerance.

You say the trauma has all been resolved - if there is any residual trauma in the tissues (not his brain) then cranial osteopathy can help to relieve that as well - it is the most amazing treatment and even I am in awe of the good practitioners of it!

I hope you can get the help you need and I hope I have been of some help here too. Feel free to ask more questions - if you want to ask them more privately, email me on thumbwitch @ live dot co dot uk (iyswim)

thumbwitch · 14/05/2009 22:52

cor, don't quite know what happened there - hope you realise that the post repeats itself halfway down!

chegirl · 15/05/2009 22:51

Thankyou Thumb.

Its very kind of you to take the time to explain all that.

You HAVE clarified things to a certain extent but I still dont quite 'get it'. But to be fair I dont fully understand a lot of the treatment my DD had and that was far more mainstream.

Lets hope it helps. I will let you know if you are interested.

Thanks again

OP posts:
thumbwitch · 15/05/2009 23:13

please do chegirl - it's always nice to hear success stories. I hope it goes well for you this time as it has before.

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