Given all the cranial osteopathy recommendations that are floating around at the moment, and the pressure on desperate families with little spare cash to spend on these treatments (and have someone out pressure on the very delicate head of their newborn), I do think it's important to just have an alternative view presented that there is currently no evidence whatsoever that this works, and significant theoretical basis to say that it could not.
This is not to attack people who have found it helpful, or those who wish to try just in case (i've been a desperate parent of an incredibly unhappy newborn and frankly would have tried anything up to and including cutting off my own fingers if it would have stopped the screaming) but to help people consider before going to a practitioner. Babies are amazing creatures and tend to grow out of lots of things on their own, which may coincide with visits to the osteopath. Of course, it may also be that there's never been quite the right study of the right practitioners and one day this will all be proven - but in the meantime, it is worth considering the evidence so far.
The largest systematic review was done by actual osteopaths (not themselves usually the harshest of critics) in 2011 and found no evidence of benefit. More recent articles claiming things like 'the growing evidence base' are in fact defences against issues in existing studies rather than research with different outcomes.
Here are some relevant links:
Systematic review of evidence in 2011 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1564028/
Another article by an osteopath expressing concern with the underlying biology www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1564028/
May well be setting myself up for a flaming here, but I really don't have a vested interest in any outcome, just wished that there had been more discussion of evidence and efficacy out there when we had an ill new baby and were getting a lot of pressure to try all and any alternative therapies, so thought I'd share to help anyone else in my position with decision making!