Cranial Osteopathy - miracle cure or load of old cobblers

[Pennies]

Have previosuly been of the school of thought that it was just another right on baby problem solution which merely provided pyschological reassurance and resolution. now faced with DD2 who cries a huge amount, feeds badly and generally seems to be an unhappy baby despite me taking every step I can to ensure she's not windy / colicky / sleepy / hungry / wet I am now consdiering it as a possible way of making her more content.

So, is it any good?

No experience in a baby, but a friend's DS is seeing one for his concentration difficulties. She says it's making a big difference.

I used it for my ds with glue ear and it really worked. He had been given gromets, daily anti biotics and in the end was down to have his adenoids removed but after six months treatment was fine.

My dd had it from a baby and was the only one who wasnt sick and colicky! There is a lot of science behind it and frankly if treated by a person with a good reputation they are properly trained and have a wide knowledge.

I am a firm advocate of cranial osteopathy. We are really lucky here as we have a major osteopathy school which runs a clinic at vastly reduced cost to the patient.

All 3 of my boys have been treated for one thing or another, and very often for things where conventional medicine has run out of ideas.

DS2 used to scream for about 6 hours a night unless being helf upright when he was a baby. GP could only suggest sedatives so I took him to the clinic. They immediately diagnosed tight scalp syndrome (which is where the skull is bigger than the scalp - in DS2's case as a result of his very fast second stage in labour so that the plates sprang back very quickly and went slightly further than they should have) and after one session he was more settled, and after three sessions was a different child - and I was a different parent .

I would definitely give it a go.

Our DS is 2yrs old and this has been the best thing we could've done for him.

Its slightly different for us because he has a single suture down his head, causing it to grow longer rather than wider. We went the medical route to Great Ormond Street Hospital, but the only answer was to actually operate and take the skull off, then put it back together in a rounded shape. Not really what any parent wants to put their child through IMO!!

DS meet all his milestones up until a year old, by which time he was walking. We didn't think it had affected him too badly. When he didn't start to talk (all his mama and dada disappeared at around 13 months) we got worried, he also started head banging. (this was Aug 2003), we got told by HV that it was just a phase etc. (which we believed as we didn't know any better) By the time he was coming up to 2yrs he was a bad sleeper, 8 hrs max, which even then he would wake up every few hours. No one seemed to be helping us. I took him for his 2y/o developmental check and despite the fact he didn't perform throughout the check, the pead still didn't think there was anything wrong. grrr.

We took him to the Osteopath who did an intial assessment. Basically, poor DS had had a tension headache for over a year and had been bashing his head as way of distracting himself from the pain. The osteopath took the history of my pregnancy and his birth and then having examined DS she said she could help us. (they will tell you if they can / can't help! they won't keep you coming just to rip you off!)

We have only needed 7 sessions, at first they were every week to 10 days they are now just once a month .

The results took a few sessions to come through, but we now have a very different little boy. DS has started talking, he sleeps 12 hours minimum through the night unbroken. He is generally a different little boy. (still very much a typical toddler with the occasional big tantrum!)

My only regret? We didn't do it sooner.

HTH and find the solution you are looking for with your DD.

silly me I meant Aug 2004!!

V. positive reviews. Think I'll give it a go. Lockets am in London. Where is the charity place?

Out of interest - anyone NOT found it useful?

Pennies are you in proper London or are you in a london borough? I am and would happily recommend ours and give an idea of costs etc if it would help you. We are in LB of Havering.

You could try the Osteopathic Clinic for Children at 19A Cavendish Square London W1M (tel: 0207 4951231) or find a local registered osteopath through the Osteopathic Information Service in Reading on 0118 951 2051.

Do make sure you check that they do cranial osteopathy - it's different from conventional osteopathy - and also that they are used to dealing with children.

I'm quite skeptical about alternative medicine, and do suspect that cranial osteopathy may be a load of old cobblers. I've never used it (oddly enough, given my attitude about it!).

That being said, I doubt it can do harm. If you're struggling, it's probably worth a go.

Thats how we found ours too through the Sutherland Society.

I couldn't remember the name though!

Notquite that sort of attitude not particularly helpful. It is not alternative it is complementary and ostopathy is widely used within medicine and hopsitals. Many progressive maternity units now offer it free and there is plenty of evidence it works.

Freckle you are quite right you need to make sure they are doing cranial osteopathy and are used to children.

Didn't help DS1 but he had severe silent reflux. We tried it with DS3, but he was a content baby anyway, and the cranio-osteopath said there was not a lot wrong with him - just a little out of line, she gave him one session for me anyway and his constipation stopped! I would def give it a go.

It says something about it that, for many years, osteopathy was banned in France, mainly because the conventional medics have such a strong lobby there and didn't want it acknowledged. All French osteopaths had to take correspondence courses (not terribly practical) or go abroad to study. The school here used to be the British School of Osteopathy, but, because of all the Europeans having to study abroad, was renamed the European School of Osteopathy. I have to say it certainly makes the whole process much more pleasant when you have a nice young man with a delicious French accent treating you/your child .

Mamatuks I'm in Hackney.

This is interesting- Hausfrau I'm also willing to do some naked public display and I'm only 4 weeks into it. How did you handle 5 months.

It just upsets me so much that my baby is not happy and I don't know what to do about it. Never had this problem with DD1 - yes, she cried alot but I knew there was nothing wrong. In this case my instincts just tell me something's not right, but god knows what it is.

Pennies if you do take your dd, I would really recommend you go to a Cranial Oestopath. Very different from one who is more realignment based. A cranial oestopath will just lay their hands, fingers on your body and do very little if any adjustements.

I went last Thursday with ds - we both had treatment. My oestopath is amazing and very intuitive and aware of energy. ds was born by C-Section and she said alot of babies born via operation have alignment problems. I could feel when I massaged my ds that something was not right.

my mum and I talked about this yesterday... and agreed that it should be standard practice at hospitals after the birth of every child.

Well DD was breech and I delivered her naturally VERY fast (2 hours from start to finish) so from what people have written below it seems that that really could have had some effect.

I think I'll follow the route of HV and GP (but have no high expectation of those two TBH) and also seek some CO assistance as well - it can hardly hurt can it.

HF - when your DS was like that did you have any idea at all what was causing it? Were there particular triggers? I can't pinpoint anything.

I was sceptical, but he made a big difference to DD in just 2 sessions. She was colicky and just used to scream and scream for hours,all through the evening and night, it was hell and I felt exactly like you, guilty that she was so unhappy. Hausfrau - must have been dreadful - we only had 4 months and it wasn't as bad as yours sounds - but noone else had a colicky baby that I knew and I was DESPERATE
She had some shoulder dystocia at birth and was born distressed with an Apgar of 5 and had to have oxygen. According to the CO she had basically been squashed in the womb and at birth and her digestive system was all out of alignment - makes sense really as she was 9lbs14 and 57cm at birth, and had a reasonably traumatic delivery. I went to a man in Chessington and I think it cost about £40 in total - worth every penny and I wish I'd gone earlier. And it can't hurt!
Do find one who specialises in babies. I found mine through a friend but he is listed on the Sutherland Society webpage \linkwww.philparker.org/database.htm\here}

Good luck!