Cranial osteopayhy on babies experience

[Hel1985]

Hi, anyone had any experience on cranial osteopathy on babies? My little one is quite unsettled and never seems content. She does sleep very well at night, which I'm very grateful for. But during the day she very squirmy, failing around, and fidgety. She seems very frustrated.
A little history behind me and my little girl, she had a hard delivery where her shoulders were stuck and cords wrapped round her neck.she was 100% tongue tied, which has now been snipped. She is very colicky and a suspect silent relux. She is extremely hard especially when tired and will squirm, cry and tense all over in distress, never seems settled at all during the day. Would love to find something that will ease her pain.

Load of woo, isn’t it?

It may well be a load of woo but I had it with both of my DC and it seemed to settle them.
DS1was born with the cord wrapped round his next twice and was initially not great at going down at night time.
DS2 was caesarian and collicky and it made a real difference.

There was a pay what you can afford clinic near us at the time which made it completely worth the gamble.

I used a lovely cranial osteopath with my two younger dc. I don’t quite understand how it works but it did seem to help and calm them. I think it’s supposed to be especially helpful if you’ve had a tricky delivery.

Obviously I’m not sure where you’re located but the lady I used was called Julie-Ann Gillett and worked in various places in and close to London. She was super and I really trusted her.

Had it for mine and it made a huge difference after the first session alone.

DD was a massively long (30+ hour) back to back labour which exhausted us both. She was colicky and had reflux. I gave up BF at 3 weeks as she puked it all back up and cried endlessly. We propped her cot and use special bottles and basically anything we could. She projectile vomited over the Heath visitor who finally conceded she wasn’t quite right.

At 6 weeks we paid for private cranial osteopathy. She slept through that night and every night from then on - 10-6. The projectile vomiting and reflux stopped.

I know people say it’s woo but I am sure something was ‘out’ due to the birth and her position. And the treatment put it right.

I took DC1 as a last resort, mostly to stop people suggesting it by enabling me to tell them I’d tried it and it was nonsense. Only it wasn’t. We brought home a completely different baby. He had had a terrible delivery and tongue tie and all sorts of other issues. He was a very clingy baby but cranial osteopathy resulted in noticeably less crying and more sleeping. Made no difference to DC2 but he was a total peach of a baby and a different kettle of fish entirely

DD was born by crash section (I had a massive haemorrhage) and was them very unsettled generally. She rarely slept during the day, and seldom for more than 2.5 hours in a stretch at night until she was 3. I am. It at all “woo”, but after two years of broke nights and very little other rest, we tried cranial osteopathy. DD did sleep well after the sessions. Whether it was the CO itself, or just being in a more relaxing environment I don’t know, but it gave me some respite!

I had shoulder dystocia with my DS , he could sleep fine sitting up but really struggled when lying down took him to the osteopath and it helped so much. I took my other son due to colic and she cleared that up to, definitely worth a try.

As far as I know it is a very very gentle form of manipulation, ie stretching the joints in the back and body. The osteo I saw said imagine being upside down and pushed really hard on your bum for a minute, every two minutes for hours how much your neck and head would hurt after that. And that's just a straight forward birth with no issues. She said most of the time it is helping to stretch out the neck as the muscles around get really tight. My DS (2nd baby) went from being a sweaty sleepless mess (I mean 20min stretches max) to sleeping 10-5 from then on. It is certainly not rubbish I think it's just that no one can prove how it works!

I'm interested in trying this to help my baby sleep. In all your cases do you think trauma during birth was a contributor? I only ask because my baby was an elective section so no trauma that I can imagine for him.....

Had a good experience with my dd, she had torticollis, flat head and I thought it helped.

Had this with ds1 and it didnt seem to have much effect

BUT

Was recommended to try it by a friend who had massive success with it, her 12 month old ( i think, was a long time ago) non sleeper, slept 6 straight hours after treatment

Sorry I should have said in PP I had a super long baby 99th percentile and 9lbs 4 so it could have been he was crushed in my tummy??

DS2 was elective. I think being chopped out of your mother is fairly traumatic, whether she’s expecting it or not!

I took my dd when she was 8 weeks old because she had been so unsettled since birth. She had to be carried constantly during the day, slept fitfully at night, was difficult to feed. As a last resort I took her for.osyeopathy. It was like a miracle. It isn't like normal osteopathy and I didn't realise he was doing anything at first - he was just cradling her in his hands and subtley moving his hands, you could see her visibly relaxing. She was much more settled after the first visit and a completely different baby after the 3rd.

Wok or not, it worked for us when nothing else did.

I think being chopped out of your mother is fairly traumatic

Yeah

Its not like they knock first

🙈 yes of course you're right. I was going to say I didn't have forceps but I've just remembered they did use them as DS was so big even with the c section! Please ignore me. I'm living on 2 hours sleep a night

Oh no

I wasnt having a pop one

I just couldnt resist a knock knock joke

I had a difficult birth with my dd which resulted in them using ventouse to deliver her but even with it was protracted.

She wouldn't turn her head to one side and would only feed on that side once asleep.

The osteopath said that her neck had been injured on one side due to the prolonged pulling and said that she'd basically had a permanent head and neck ache for 8 weeks. It makes sense that someone pulling on your head when your body is jammed in somewhere is likely to have some impact.

I'm very sceptical but I tried it for DS who had a frozen shoulder/stiff neck from being in a strange position in utero (he was transverse most of the time). He wasn't rolling or even trying to and couldn't lift his head when on his front. The osteopath was really helpful and gave us exercises to do which sorted him out and made him a lot less miserable. It's worth a try.

Systematic review from 2017 for you OP

Thank you so much for your replies, it's definitely made me very interested. With a little info I have given on the previous post, do you think or recommend me booking in to help my little girl?