Treating Babies and Children

Cranio-sacral therapy is thought to be useful during pregnancy to help create and maintain balance for the mother and baby/babies throughout such a changeable time. It can be used to prepare on all levels for birth and is particularly useful for the post partum period for the whole family. Having a child can be a whirlwind experience, no matter how well you prepare and when faced with this life-changing experience it can be a great challenge for either parent to maintain a sense of inner resource and balance. So many things can affect mum from the birth and the early experiences of child rearing. Sometimes it is simply a process of 'catching' up with events. Other times there are physical and traumatic processes to come to terms with and get treatment for such as pelvic dysfunction, post natal depression (PND) and the effects of caesarian operations or episiotomy, to name but a few. If there have been challanges conceiving this will also add to the picture to varying degrees.

For baby, There are both physical and emotional processes at play including the demands of the huge compressive forces during the birth that the natural re-moulding process of the body may not be enough to resolve. When left untreated, these can contribute (among several other factors) to sleep, and feeding problems, colic and digestive disturbances and glue ear or other conditions.

There is also a far more profound journey for this new being, of arriving into their life and experiencing acutely how they are welcomed and how they are met. Through the profound connection this work can nurture, there is a rare opportunity to enable the baby themselves to lead us into their world and their needs. Here, they are entirely equipped to show us their needs without the use of words.

Why CST?

A profound connection to the core system of a person is enabled through craniosacral therapy.

When working with babies this means that, through treatment, they are given an opportunity to be understood in ways that aren't in the usual repertoire of adult-infant interactions (though most parents recognise the work on an instinctive level when they observe it).

When I first trained in this area of complementary work, over 15 years ago, I found it hard to believe that birth and very early experience - even inside the womb- could really impact a person beyond the time frame it occurs within. Increasingly, the many babies I have worked with have shown me time and time again, that they encounter a very full experience of events. In fact, in addition to the physical process of birth and it's effects on the body, because they don't filter things cognitively, they absorb a rich sentient imprint of the world around them which is felt very deeply and without censorship. Babies do not possess the 'boundaries' we develop as adults and, without language and cognitive development, cannot process or reflect on what is happening within them and to them... but there is no doubt in my mind that they feel it and 'know' it none the less. Treating them at the level of the body therefore allows them to process what they carry at the level they experience and express it.

In simple terms, CST gives babies a chance to tell their story and 'process' what they carry from their early experience - both on the sentient level and also in terms of physical imprints and symptoms.

Click here for recent research showing adult level brain function in full term babies from Imperial College London

 

Who comes for CST?

Most parents, unless their child has a particular medical diagnosis, seek treatment to help with sleep and feeding related issues; colic and digestive symptoms and mild complications relating to the birth process. The latter may often be hidden under the previous symptoms mentioned or may be more specific such as torticollis (a one-sided pull of the neck) and positional plagiocephaly (a flattened head). In older babies and children, ear infections and common childhood illnesses most commonly lead to the search for effective treatment.

CST is worth considering in most of these cases and has also been thought to help in more complex cases such as epilepsy (see Attlee article here), pyloric stenosis and autism (see article by Denise McCann), among many others.

In all cases CST is not a replacement for primary care. Despite strong anecdotal evidence observed by thousands of parents who have found this mode of treatment helpful, there is still a great lack of evidence-based literature to back up what people like myself believe to be a truly worthwhile treatment to consider.

 

What to expect in a session.

No two sessions are ever the same - given that this work aims to engage with the core of a person, they need to be 'met' where they are.

However, there are general consistencies.

In infants, it is important that they are treated completely in context of their union with the mother. Even if one or both parents have chosen to come for something that appears only to be the baby's problem - they cannot be isolated. It takes time for babies to individualise and for many months they do not experience themselves separately. This means that treatment will happen with baby in mum's arms (or those of their father or other guardian). Treatment is through the baby's clothes and lasts between 30 -50 minutes. The first session allows an extra 30 minutes to take the case history.

In the case history, information about pregnancy, conception and birth is usually relevant (though not essential) and an understanding of broader circumstances is often sought.

In toddlers and children, there may be a different emphasis in the case history but they will always be considered within the context of their family structure and wider environment.

Treatment in the latter cases will be flexible and often mobile (most older babies and toddlers don't lie still for very long unless they are sleeping!) and will involve a certain amount of play if necessary.

Aim of Treatment

The main aim of treating babies with CST, as I see it, is not to fixate on an immediate 'cure' but to give the baby an opportunity to properly release whatever is getting in the way of free expression of health. In simple cases this may mean, for example, releasing compression at the junction between the head and neck that might give immediate resolution to symptoms of colic. At the other end of the spectrum, in cases of congenital conditions or more severe and intransigent cases such as those seen in some neurological disturbances, it may mean working to optimise function and maintain homeostasis as best as possible (often alongside the use of other therapies).

Sometimes the work requires the mother and maybe the father to be treated too. This is for several reasons including:

1. The secondary affects of an unhappy and unwell baby can be debilitating and stressful. Resourcing the parents provides a greater support and a greater chance of healing for baby and a better quality of life for the family.

2. Sometimes a baby has the ability to balance themselves without help or much treatment but is resonating with the parents stress enough to be apparently symptomatic (usually seen in terms of feeding or sleep patterns)

Very often it is a combination of both 1 and 2.