Craniosacral massage - genius or lunacy?

yellow hen

I'm curious for people's opinions on baby osteopathy or craniosacral massage.

Personally, we have a one month old who we think has reflux. Docs have examined him and agree that it most likely reflux. He was out on gaviscon and it appeared to relieve the problem temporarily. It did however create another problem of constipation. I was referred (by a friend) to an osteopath who specialises in babies. If anyone else had a reflux or colicky baby, you'll know that you'd try anything to help them.

So anyway, I went along to the appt. The lady started by asking me about the birth to ascertain if it was traumatic to the baby. She went on to massaging the nerves in his back and neck (which apparently were twisted or 'off').She also examined his tongue and palate and told me he wasnt sucking correctly and was only using one side of his mouth which she claimed to then fix. She told me to take our son off the gaviscon immediately which we did. We were told we may need one more appt but two would be the max that would be required. Fast forward 48 hours and our son was hysterical tonight which we put down to the reflux and lack of gaviscon in his system. We put him back on it tonight and the pain appears to be settling down for him again.

I'm just curious to hear other people's thoughts or experiences. It was an interesting hour with the lady but I can't fathom if what she was doing was genius or complete nonsense. I mentioned it to a gp golleague and they had no respect for this practice (although I think the medical profession are often intolerant of non medical interventions).

So, what are people's thoughts or experiences?

CaraMay

I went to an osteopath with my son and he came out with the same comments. He said c-section babies often have alignment issues which cause them problems. TBH I didnt find any benefit after 3 visits and now Im sorry i went as all I can see is him dangling baby upside down by the legs...

I find a little brown sugar in water good for his constipation and even better is a warm bottle. We used to give him his bottles cold and were advised that warm bottles can move things along. It does work for us.

I have tried almost everything including 'blessed vests' from Monaghan, baby massage,etc etc and all that has worked is time and medication. My constant quest to find a fix caused problems between my other half and I as he thought I was chasing rainbows and now, in hindsight, he was right. He put his foot down at the craniosacral massage. People I know have and its worked for some and not for others. I wish it were different but for us it has been a long hard slog. However, as I said above some of the 'magic solutions' either worked for others or were performed at a time where their baby was due to get better anyway.

Have you looked in to baby massage for helping the bowels. You can claim back €100 on VHI for baby massage lessons. The massage is great for bonding with the baby and for showing you how to 'massage' the colon and will be money well spent no matter even just to relax baby.

Glad you are getting on better yellow hen.

pwurple

Quakery and psuedoscience I'm afraid. Scores quite highly on the quack-meter. Google away for the general consensus. A good rule of thumb for quackology is when something claims to cure almost everything you can think of. This is one of those.

I have a collegue who has tried everything imaginable for reflux, including this, and nothing has worked except time.

Most importantly, it is downright dangerous for these people to tell anyone to disregard their GP's advice. Alarm bells all round for me when you said they told you to stop doing what the doctor advised.

At one month they are a little young for pureed pear, but when they are older, that is great for constipation. Hope it improves, hang on in there.

littlemissfixit

I have no experience of it with a baby but I have seen one myself a few years ago, after couple of years of physio after a bad crash I was left with a lot of problems. I went 3 times and seriously never looked back.
I don't believe you either have to be on the side of conventional medicine or on the other, but that sometimes a combination of both can work the best. We are quite used to popping a pill or drinking some syrup and see the result straight away while a lot of alternative medicines help the body learn to heal itself, which granted may take more time but it would be the one I would chose first.
Again though, if it was my baby and not me in distress then whatever worked the best and the fastest would probably get my vote.

missis aggie

I went to see cranial osteopath as recommended to help my daughter with clamping on the right nipple while breastfeeding. Two visits and her sucking improved on both sides. So I think it worked well and was worth it to get it done.

wmpdd3

I would be a total sceptic, but I took my son to a cranial osteopath and it worked for him, he had colic from 4 weeks to 14 weeks. Worst 10 weeks ever. He was a vaginal birth so not usually an a candidate for alignment issue. But after 2 sessions he as a new baby.

CaraMay

wmpdd3 wrote: »

I would be a total sceptic, but I took my son to a cranial osteopath and it worked for him, he had colic from 4 weeks to 14 weeks. Worst 10 weeks ever. He was a vaginal birth so not usually an a candidate for alignment issue. But after 2 sessions he as a new baby.

With all due respect colic typically ends at 3 months anyway.

yellow hen

My husband refuses to let our son have another appt with this lady. I'm disappointed as I guess in desperation I had all my hopes pinned on a magic cure. Anyway, our little man is back on gaviscon and we'll take the docs advice from here on. It's a manageable condition and we just need the confidence in our own ability to manage it.

meeeeh

Besides the fact I think it's complete and utter nonsense, ask yourself if you would trust a bus driver who would claim he has an alternative driving licence? Doctors are not always right and sometimes they are criminaly incompitent but their profession is regulated with guidelines, procedures and codes of practice. Quacks are not regulated half as stringently. I actually think it's quite irresponsible to even let one of them near your child.

wmpdd3

CaraMay wrote: »

With all due respect colic typically ends at 3 months anyway.

It ended with my daughter at 12 weeks and we just thought it was a matter of time when it would end with my son but after 6 weeks of feeding every hour and no sleep and endless packets of galviscon, I was up for anything. Both the reflux and colic disappeared.

After the first session, I put him in his car seat and for the first time in 6 weeks he didnt scream, he looked out the window and then slept. He had never sat in his car seat or upright in his buggy with out screaming.

wmpdd3

yellow hen wrote: »

My husband refuses to let our son have another appt with this lady. I'm disappointed as I guess in desperation I had all my hopes pinned on a magic cure. Anyway, our little man is back on gaviscon and we'll take the docs advice from here on. It's a manageable condition and we just need the confidence in our own ability to manage it.

I'm so sorry this hasn't worked for you. If you can train a friend in on how to mind him and try get a few hours away. I convinced myself that only we could look after my son and we really found it so tiring.

littlemissfixit

I don't know about Ireland, but in North America there is a strong regulation and the recognised members are Doctors in osteopathic medicines.
I don't get the comparison with an alternative driver's licence. Its as if to say there was no two ways of treating any ailment, which Im sure isn't true even within conventional medicine itself.

meeeeh

If you regulate charlatans that doesn't mean they stop being charlatans. There is no scientific proof that their stuff works and yet they are selling it as healing and giving advice to ignore proper medicine. I'm not going any further into it and I can understand how parents out of desperation want to try anything but at least don't stop using conventional medicines at the same time.

dub_skav

We brought our daughter to an osteopath and she never once warned us off medicines or doctors, or ever claimed to be the only thing that would work.

It was really more like sports massage for the baby, she had very tense neck and shoulders from difficult birth. It was only after the first session that we realised that while our baby had always been very active she never raised her hands above shoulder level much and cried when raising her arms to dress her.
After the first session she waved her hands around over her head in play with no issues, she also ceased crying when being changed, she also slept better.

I will not advise everyone to go to an osteopath - I would not be so arrogant as to tell people that I know better than them - and I would advise those who consider it to do a lot of research and know what to expect.

I certainly believe that being curled up for a number of months with little room and going through the physical strain of delivery may leave babies muscles and joints strained, so I can see the logic in that aspect of osteopathy.
Some of the claims may be a little far reaching, i.e. it cures everything, but then again I know people who refuse to try dietary changes / exercise to improve any aspects of life, believing that medication is the only way to go and that pills cure everything, I find that claim equally extravagant.

meeeeh

I don't think there is any point discussing with somebody who thinks that scientific research in dietary or whatever properties of food is the same as moon charts. I might be arogant but not as arogant as those who think they don't need objective research of their medicines.

dub_skav

meeeeh wrote: »

I don't think there is any point discussing with somebody who thinks that scientific research in dietary or whatever properties of food is the same as moon charts. I might be arogant but not as arogant as those who think they don't need objective research of their medicines.

I will miss your witty rejoinders and informative input.

By the by, you don't seem to know what osteopathy is.

meeeeh

dub_skav wrote: »

I will miss your witty rejoinders and informative input.

By the by, you don't seem to know what osteopathy is.

I do know, at least I know enough to ignore them. I never went into detailed research how you cure four times broken leg without operation and medicines. There is a reason why alternative medicine has to use therm alternative. Because it is not proper medicine. Then again creationism is the alternative theory to big bang theory. Maybe I should be just a little more open minded.

littlemissfixit

It is true there has been a lack of research on its benefits, also a lack of research to discredit it.( The only research into it that I am aware of anyway has shown to significantly reduce lower back pain problems.)
I would never, and don't think any good osteopath would ever advise to ignore medical advices. Often it is use as a complementary medicine, like acupuncture and others along with conventional med.
In the UK I believe GPs can actually refer their patients to osteopaths with transfer of responsabilities etc. So if one has such a strong faith in conventional medicine only, would that person follow such advice from their doctor of conventional medicine I may ask?

Inishowen lady

We had 3 sessions with Osteopath with our guy and gave up didn't see any benefit. In fact the public health nurse later noticed that he had misaligned hips, Osteopath should have caught that!

Having said that my brother and a friend of mine both cite chiropracters as having cured their babies reflux.

mrsbarnacles

our daughter has had colic since 3 weeks and she still has bouts of it when teething she is now 7 months. After trying EVERYTHING on the market and any recommended advice the only thing that has worked for us is baby rice in the bottle I expressed breast milk at the start and added it to that then added it to formula. Did try the formulas with the baby rice in it but did not work. I must point out that I was told off for doing this by the health centre and therefore stopped doing it after about 7 weeks but only started doing it again 2 weeks ago after several months of sleeping less that 3 hours a night and she is much improved, she wakes once a night during 10 hours whereas before it was mostly every 1.5 hours but could be as less as 30 mins and would be awake for hours each time screaming in pain. I know every baby is different and may not work for your bundle of joy but all I can say is it is worked for us! I use 1 formula scoop of rice per 3-4 oz milk did it for every feed at start and now only give it before night time feed. Anyone who is the mother of a colicky baby or a reflux baby all I can say is patience, the odd glass of wine and if your a extremely lucky to have help take it! x

Moonbeam

That sounds more like a hungry baby.

*mod note*
It is advised not to put baby rice in babies bottles and weaning too early can harm a young baby.

mrsbarnacles

at 3 weeks she was consuming 36oz of bm and topping up with more than 7oz of formula every 24 hrs, as I could not keep up with supply she screamed non stop for 12 hours every evening from 7pm to 7am the only time she did not cry was when feeding however once I put the baby rice into the bottle she was consuming less than 20oz and first time I did it she slept 4 hours. I know introducing solids to baby before 6 months is not good and did not do this for son however after weeks of non stop screaming, several visits to doctors, several pescriptions, colief, gaviscon, sleeping positions etc nothing improved her. It was the only thing that worked.