cranial therapy for infants??

[ramonasmama]

i'm wondering if anyone out there has experience with this. 3mo dd's naturopath told me that it looks like she could use some cranial - craniosacral therapy to help with tension, posture, the fact that she hates to be on her tummy and sometimes arches up. all of these things seem reasonable to me, but i wouldn't be opposed to helping her work through them. our naturopath said that two plates in her head have not fully worked their way apart since the birth (she was in the birth canal for a looong time, i pushed for 3 hours) and that could be contributing to her behavior. the therapy will be coming out of our pocket so i'd like to be sure it's a viable and effective method... anyone have anything to share? thanks so much!

[Milo]

I had craniosacral work done on myself while pregnant with DS #2, and both my boys had some craniosacral work when they were just newborns...like less than 6 weeks old. My first baby was very cone-headed in the back (he looked like a baby neaderthal) and the cranial massage really helped that. Also, before, he would roll his eyes alot, and that stopped afterwards, too. My second baby had a beautiful little head, but had come shooting out so fast, the chiropractor recommended some massage to make sure nothing had gotten twisted or pinched in the process. His results were less noticeable.

I have known other families who found craniosacral work to be very helpful for the specifics you mention...arching, not tolerating being laid flat on the back/tummy, etc.

Hope this helps.

[Northern Mama]

I've had craniosacral therapy done for myself and highly recommend it. I find it very gentle non-invasive therapy that sometimes feels so gentle its hard to belive anything is actually being done on my body. At least this is the way my practitioner is. In two treatments my wrist pain I had for years was gone. As well, some digestive issues were cleared up with this therapy.
I have heard that it is quite good for infants too.

[jordmoder]

I've seen some really remarkable results from Cranial-Sacral therapy on infants. I worked in a clinic with a Naturopathic physician and could see first hand what happened with these children. great stuff - and sooooo gentle.

[Stacie]

I also had craniosacral therapy done while pregnant... it was so relaxing and actually helped releived some swelling in my feet and pain in my hip. Also, it helped to lower my bloodpressure. Which wasn't overly high, but higher than it normally is.

I had my newborn done also because he was born and aspirated nuconium and in NICU for almost three weeks. The arm the iv was in was hardly moving and his foot where he had an iv "blowout" - he would not allow you to touch without pulling away.

After one treatment he is now freely moving his left arm and will allow you to touch his foot. I enjoy doing infant massage on my babies following their baths.

I also have a 7 year who was diagnosed with autism and I put him on chelation therapy to remove many heavy metals from his brain and body, and it has helped with the side effects of chelation.

I fully recommend it.

[lunarmomma]

YES to craniosacral treatment for babes and moms. And anyone else for that matter! It is extremely subtle, (gentle) and effective, not to mention relaxing.
We have a great person here in our community who works wonders with babes. I also go to see her for treatments, as does my husband. We brought our DS to her when he was a couple of months old.
I highly recommend it!

[gret the great]

It's good stuff!

I get worked on as does my dh and ds. DS was worked on when he was 12 hours old, which was great. He was a c-sec baby, and my friend/CS therapist treated him so he could "go through the birth canal" Amazing stuff. Whenever he gets cranky for no "reason" we get him treated. Go for it!

[Spark]

Oh, yeah! Cranial-Sacral therapy is great for infants! My baby was born with his hand along side his head. And, I believe, as a result his chin was a bit off center. The little cleft in his chin did not line up with his nose. When he was 5 days old, a therapist friend of mine did cranial sacral work on him. Babies seem to be so responsive to it. In just about ten-fifteen minutes his chin was centered. He's two weeks old now and his chin is still cute and centered.

Also, a friend of mine had a baby with a cleft problem. He had difficulty breastfeeding. When he was a few months old and his mom was so tired of pumping and feeding him that way, she took him to have cranial-sacral work done. After one session, he started smacking his tongue against the roof of his mouth & nurse like a champ ever since.

So, in my experience, cranial-sacral therapy really works well. Hope you have similar experience!

Claire