Cranial osteopathy for sleep problems...? Baby screams himself to sleep every night.

[coffeebookscake]

Not sure where to post this. I spoke to a sleep consultant recently who thinks that my baby's screaming to sleep is related to birth traumas and that we should take him to a cranial osteopath...

My Ds (17 weeks) has, what we call, a meltdown, every night before going to sleep. He screams until he is breathless and we simply hold him and shhh until he stops. After about 40 mins he will fall asleep in my arms. During this time, he won't nurse, or respond to anything other distraction.

This has been going on since he was about 7-8 weeks old. We thought it is overtiredness. He used to have these screaming fits during the day too, but these stopped when he started to (cat)nap regularly during the day.

The screaming continues at bedtime though, no matter what the wake time is - 40 mins, 60mins, 90 mins, 2 hours, and no matter how much he napped, or what kind of a day he had. My mum reckons he's scared of the dark, but he naps in a dark room (blacked out) with no problems. We also have a nightlight on.

The sleep consultant thinks this is about stress 'release' (and hence we should see the osteopath). I am not sure what I think of the whole thing but it's clear that DS is nowhere near 'outgrowing' this bedtime screaming thing.

Anyone with any osteopath sleep experience out there?

My dd was corded at birth and couldn't settle without being held really tightly, it felt like we were practically suffocating her at times :-( the cranial osteopath was amazing. She only needed 3 sessions where it seemed like he did nothing he was so gentle. Helped ds1 feeding as well. Highly recommend

Are you sure it's not colic? Sounds like a classic case to me- which means that it will end very soon as his gut matures.

I am usually not a fan of 'alternative' therapies but after 5 and a bit months of a colicky, refluxy, poorly sleeping baby another mum at school (who I barely know - must have looked rough!) Recommended it. I decided I had nothing to lose and I have been amazed. My ds also has some v specific unusual problems which would outme but the osteopath has lliterally fixed them overnight after 2 months of drs and specialists not knowing what to do and suggesting mris.
Go for it you have nothing to lose.

Yes, we ruled out gut issues/colic. He had some terrible gut problems but grew out of them by 10 weeks yet the pre-sleep meltdowns continue, two months later. And are specifically related to bedtime, it seems.

Thank you for your recommendations! I am also a bit skeptical but then again, I went for acupuncture to help my morning sickness and it really helped.

It had an amazing effect on my DC1. Would thoroughly recommend it.

That sounds rough! If it was me and I'd tried and ruled out other things I'd say why the hell not! Worth a shot! Hope it improves soon

My nearly 6 month old DD is the same. It's horrible! She nearly always screams before she goes to sleep - even naps when in the car or buggy. Bedtime is the worst and it is so distressing. Like you we ruled out colic and gut problems especially as she's still doing it at this stage.

We used a sleep consultant at around 4 months, which helped us with self settling - but she is stumped by the bedtime screaming! Possible explanations are not tired enough to sleep and objecting to brig put to bed, being overtired (when this is the case the crying is for less time), or just a release of emotion at the end of the day.

We have, through lots of trial and error, found a bedtime routine that does sometimes result in no or minimal crying, which in itself is a vast improvement on screaming every time.

We haven't tried cranial osteopathy on the basis that her birth was pretty straight forward and I am convinced it is behavioural rather than physical. From what I've read it isn't too expensive and can work wonders so I would say it's got to be worth a try. Good luck.

My dd did this for a while from around 4-6mths. We tried cranial osteopathy and dietary changes, made no difference at all.

We introduced a dummy for bedtime and a routine during the day (regular feed/nap times) and weaned dd. We saw an improvement quite quickly. It was still a long time before dd slept through but the screaming while we held her reduced significantly. With our dd I think it was overstimulation or overtiredness. When we veered from the routine the screaming tended to return.

By all means try it but I don't know anyone in RL who has found it to make a noticeable difference. Suggest use someone who's been recommended by a parent if you can.

Many babies do this - night falls and they start screaming for no apparent reason.

"Cranial osteopathy" is woo, with no scientific basis or credible theory behind it.

WineSpider, sounds like our situations are the same! My DS also started self settling for naps at 16 weeks but the bedtime screaming continues.

Just out of interest, what is the bedtime routine you mention?

Cote, I know, this is what I was worried about, especially as I am a very rational person that believes in scientific evidence! On the other hand, I personally did things that have no scientific evidence but made me feel a lot better (acupuncture, meditation and so on). I am willing to believe that not all things have a rational scientific explanation :)

Having said that, my acupuncturist said that Chinese trained medical doctors think that western medicine is bonkers because it doesn't use acupuncture and herbs, which are routine in Chinese hospitals! Yet have no scientific evidence here. Anyway that was just an aside that I find really interesting!

Million, could you tell me a bit more about how you managed your routine and the screaming?

I also put this down to overstimulation but it happens regardless of the kind of day DS has - playing home alone with me all day, out at the doctors, visitors all day, out shopping etc. I ensure pre bedtime (before we even get to the bedtime routine) has really low key activities, no bright lights etc and it makes no difference.

I also thought of under tiredness but again, doesn't seem to matter when we put him down!

Hi coffee
We work in the basis of her tired signs rather than a set bed time. So when she starts to rub her face and gets grumpy (usually about 2.5-3 hours after last nap) we start.

Last bottle feed downstairs
Up to play in cot for 10 mins ish while I get bath stuff ready
Bath - lots of fun, toys, splashing
Get dressed in bathroom (she used to start the screaming when she got dressed which we used to do in her room but seems to have stopped this since we started dressing her in the bathroom no idea why!)
Into bedroom, couple of musical story books
Into cot
Gentle playing (minimal interaction from me - I usually pass her toys which she throws about)
Gradually turn down light
Once she turns her head into the mattress and closes her eyes with or without crying I leave the room and hope for the best!!
She has something called a slumber buddy which is about £20 from Argos and often stares at it - I think the red light relaxes her
I also snuggle teddies into her so she feels cosy and has something in her hands

It has taken is a while to get to this point and I know it sounds a bit laborious but if I "dump and run" she gets really upset. She likes mummy & daddy to work for it!! Crying can be anything from a couple of minutes of stop / start tired crying to 40 minutes of hysteria. If it is the former we leave her. If she starts getting hysterical we pick her up and sit her facing outwards on our knee and wave the slumber buddy to distract her. No rocking shushing patting etc.

We have also started keeping a log of when she goes to bed, nap tines etc to see if there is any pattern.

I really hope she grows out if it! She used to do it really badly every bed time but over the past week or so there have been a few times where there has been no crying, or only a couple of minutes so here is hoping.

I know how upsetting it is, especially if you have had a hard day.

Good luck.

Thanks wine, that's really helpful! I noticed too that the screaming tends to start whilst dressing on the changing table, which DS normally loves during the day, so I might change this to see if there is any difference.

Thanks again, lots of useful ideas in your routine!

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This might help explain more. We're currently using cranial osteopathy as DD (4 weeks) is having problems turning her head fully to the right, she's only had 2 sessions and we've noticed a big difference.

There is ample scientific evidence for the efficacy of meditation. Acupuncture, on the other hand, is pure woo as evidenced over and over with various studies.

Yes, you might feel better after acupuncture, homeopathy, crystal healing sessions etc because of placebo effect. Fine, if you don't mind paying for your mind to be tricked.

"Cranial osteopathy" is complete bullocks. Practitioner claims to feel and manipulate a subtle pulse in the liquid around the brain. Err... what?

Coffeebookscake: Dd really struggled to nap during the day as a newborn. As the day wore on she became more and more tired and this would often culminate in 30-45 mins screaming (while we held her) at bedtime.

When dd was around 5 months I was advised by a maternity nurse to try a routine to stop dd snacking all day (I was bfeeding) and to try to encourage regular naps after a proper feed, even if the naps were short.
So I aimed for:

Wake (Dd usually woke around 6.30am): Bfeed
Breakfast: 1 hour after bfeed
Morning nap: within 1 hour after breakfast. I usually offered 3oz formula which helped. Also gave dummy for nap.
Mid morning bfeed: around 2 hours after waking from nap.
Lunch: within 30 mins of bfeed.
Afternoon nap: within 1 hour after lunch. Again I offered bottle of formula and dummy.
Tea: usually within 2ish hours of waking from nap.
Bath: usually around 6ish.
Bedtime: usually 6.45pm. Bfeed (or bottle when weaned) and dummy.

Obviously the timings could vary depending on how tired dd seemed, how well she slept etc. I didn't force dd to nap if she really didn't want to and I resorted to the pram when I had to. Sometimes if dd's naps had been short I'd take her for a pram walk late afternoon for an extra short nap. The routine still allowed us to go to activities in the morning and afternoon.

As dd was weaned she ate more solids and the bfeeds were replaced by 3 bottles of formula a day.

It really helped dd, even as a toddler she thrives on routine (obviously bit different from the above routine these days!). She naturally wants to nap and sleep around a similar pattern most days.

We've kept her bedtime routine the same. Dd has her bedtime stories before bathtime. She likes to go straight to the nursery after her bath, has her bottle in my lap then straight to bed.
We need to tackle teeth brushing after her bottle (at the moment its
before) and to phase out the dummy (she still has it for sleep time) so its not perfect but she sleeps well which I'm so grateful for :)

Hope that helps.

Thank you, million, that does help! We are taking a similar approach but it still needs fine tuning, I guess!

How is it going coffee? Have you tried anything different? Did you decide to do the cranial osteopathy?

We have had 2 out 3 nights where bedtime has been better - interestingly the bad night was the day she had a long sleep at lunchtime but no afternoon nap. We are trying to keep a log so we can see if there is a pattern. Have to write it down as it all merges into one otherwise!

Hi wine! Well, I changed one thing after the suggestions above. I no longer change him on the changing table but on the bed, and have started doing lots of inane chit chat during the change and massage. So far no evening meltdown - I think the change has either stunned him or he has got into the habit of crying on the changing table and has had to do it!

But, having said that, on 2 of those days he had a pretty big cry in the daytime, so maybe the sleep consultant is right about it begin a stress release thing?

Haven't decided yet on cranial osteopathy... Will see how the new routine goes!

I think keeping logs is a great idea! Have you noticed any particular pattern?