Please Share your experiences with Infant Craniosacral Therapy

[violetflapjack]

Would anyone be willing to share their experiences of Infant Craniosacral therapy?

A bit of background on why I ask...
I am an apsiring midwife/woman care/pediatric health care practitioner currently in the process of designing my course of study. I've been interested in craniosacral therapy as a modality for a while now. I have a friend who is a CS (craniosacral) therapist and know many adults who have had the therapy and experienced positive results. Another midwife I know works some what closely with a CST. I understand the basics of how it works, and I have had no question at all about its safety.... Until this morning when I was looking into what kind of training I would have to recieve to become and CST and work with infants and children. The second result on google for "infant craniosacral therapy" was an article titled "Infant Dies After Craniosacral Therapy" (anaximperator.wordpress.com/.../infant-dies-after-craniosacral-therapy/).

After reading through the article and comments, it seems that the practitioner was not using craniosacral technique in that instance. But I also found some links down at the comments section in the bottom to other articles about adverse effects of CST in infants. I had been going along thinking that this was a gentle, safe therapy but now I can't help but question. How controversial is infant CST?

I give thanks in advance to anyone who shares their experiences.

[KimPM]

DS had CST once a week (or every other week? I can't remember now) for about 5 weeks when he was 3 months old or so. My DS had torticollis and was chewing on me while breastfeeding, and the lactation consultant was baffled...she recommended the CST. The practitioner came highly recommended for children. He was very gentle, the practitioner just put his hands on DS's head. He also put on a glove and put a finger in his mouth (when my DS would let him, and after the practitioner asked me if it was okay). He only did this because it was a chewing issue. I think normally they don't have to put a finger in the mouth. The practitioner was very conscious of how DS was being affected and he stopped at any sign of DS getting bothered in the least.

I noticed DS would be a bit worked up after each visit. It was interesting...some visits afterward he seemed better, and others he seemed worse. We stopped on a good one.

I can't imagine how a child could be injured during CST. Perhaps there was some kind of chiropractic or other stuff going on there? Perhaps a post vaccine reaction? Who knows.

ETA: Just found the article and they say the child "died after manipulation of the neck and the vertebral column". "During continued and deep bending of the neck, the patient..." This kind of thing was nothing like we had. Our practitioner barely even touched him (except for the mouth thing). This news story sounds like some kind of chiropractic manipulation gone wrong. Sounds like a bad practitioner.

The physical therapist (a different place altogether) did stretching of his neck for the torticollis - if anything, that was way more manipulative (for lack of a better word).

[tanyalynn]

I can't imagine how CST alone could injure someone, but chiropractic done badly could, I'd think. But chiropractic done well can help, DS was having nursing troubles, really trouble turning his head in one direction, and two visits to our old chiro stopped that.

CST visits stopped DD's ear infections, I guess she was 6-9 months old when we went? Maybe a half dozen visits, and she never had another EI.

I can't say how controversial it is. It seems like just about anything, done poorly, can cause problems on some level. If CST done well can make people feel better, then done badly it seems like it could worsen problems.

[nicky85]

Sounds like one of those scare articles from the media and the AMA. My son has Chiari II malformation and hydrocephalus and sees a chiropractor regularly. She does cranial sacral work on him. It's very gentle; just like firm, soft touches to the head. It's not dangerous and so far his hydrocephalus has been fine- no need for a shunt revision.

[JayGee]

DD2 had CST the day after she was born. She slept through the entire thing. Before CST, her latch was awful and I was in intense pain every time she nursed. After CST, there was no pain or discomfort and I happily nursed her until around her second birthday.

[Holiztic]

CST improved my own postpartum anxiety so greatly that I had DS treated at 2 weeks just because--no obvious issues other than so called "colic", which I believe was his own anxiety as a result of my own (and perhaps a deficiency or two I am still working through that he likely got from me). Anyway, the point is we didn't really have much to look for improvement on, but the CST could certainly not have hurt him!

However, at almost 3 I took him back for major sleep issues (severe bedtime resistance with tantrums--which he didn't have at all during the day) and then night terrors 2 hours into his sleep (due to being overtired after giving up naps). After one session the night terrors were gone and he was napping again (well, at least a few times a week!)

I LOVE CST!

[mellowjello]

CST is one of the best things we did for our daughter who had severe reflux and sleep disturbance. It is truly amazing.

But before that, I took her to a chiropractor and I think that was a mistake. She did mild adjustments, and kept adjusting the same area (occiput/atlas) over and over again. She (and I) didn't stop to ask why my daughter couldn't hold the adjustment.

Then we went to a Doctor of Osteopathy who works mostly with children. (The chiropractor also had lots of experience with infants/children BTW). The DO said the real problem was in the skull bones of the head. The chiropractor was never going further up than the neck. The skull bone misalignment cascaded down to affect the occiput/atlas, which is why simply adjusting the occiput/atlas did not result in a lasting improvement. The chiro said she was doing CST but it was very different from the CST the DO performed. After that experience, and seeing how beautifully my daughter responded to the DO's work on her, I would never go back to a chiropractor.

There was more to it than just dealing with the vagus nerve. The DO explained how my daughter's head shape indicated a restriction in the membrane that surrounds the brain, keeping it from growing evenly. The did incredibly gentle massage to "loosen" the membrane, and my daughter's head shape became more normal. She also noted that my daughter had compression at the base of the skull which related to some of her symptoms and the DO worked on this too. We got SOOOOOO much more out of the DO. And she suggested the work the chiro did might have been harmful.

Learn from a DO!!!!!!

[AbbieB]

DD was born (at home) after a long, painful back labor, with pretty sever head molding. She was not interested in latching on to nurse and had lots of trouble with a weak suck.

We went for treatment within 24 hours of her birth and after 1 visit she began to latch and there was a noticeable difference in her suck strength. After about 3 or 4 visits in 2 weeks she latched properly and was nursing on her own.

[violetflapjack]

Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. Very helpful!

[Panserbjorne]

can't say enough good things. All of my kids have had it from birth and I send just about every baby that comes to my clinic for CST. I rarely see a babe that couldn't benefit.

[mbravebird]

Originally Posted by mellowjello

But before that, I took her to a chiropractor and I think that was a mistake. She did mild adjustments, and kept adjusting the same area (occiput/atlas) over and over again. She (and I) didn't stop to ask why my daughter couldn't hold the adjustment.

This happened to us too. The adustments would just pull out. Since CST, though, we have not needed the chiropractor. CST has really changed our lives and our approach to health. "Deep bending of the neck" is not part of CST -- the therapist must have been doing a different therapy at that time. I have some training in CST, as well, and I promise that that is not part of it.

I, too, think every baby would benefit. My first son's nursing changed entirely after one mouth session. I didn't think anything was "wrong" until it changed, and our nursing experience improved so much!