The unsettled baby

It is common for babies to be born with strains anywhere in their body. Strains are associated with pain and a wide range of health conditions. Symptoms range from poor daytime sleep to an extremely distressed baby who cries throughout the night.

An unsettled baby can be very distressing for the mother and the rest of the family. Endless hours of sleep deprivation trying to settle the baby can contribute significantly to post-natal depression.

Head, jaw and neck strain can interfere with effective breast feeding. The baby may pull away from the breast, poorly latch on, or bite the nipple. Injured or cracked nipples opens the way for infection.

A baby who cries excessively because they're in pain is often misdiagnosed as the mother not producing enough milk, which in many cases leads to an early cessation of breast feeding. 

We have seen excellent outcomes in treating babies with:

• night and day sleep disturbance
• constant crying/screaming
• neck spasm (torticollis)
• attachment and feeding problems
• reflux
• colic
• recurrent middle ear infections (including 'glue ear')
• recurrent colds and flu
• flat head syndrome (plagiocephaly)
• excessive wind
• constipation
• indigestion
• herniation
• and strained bowel movements.

Excessive forces strain babies

Babies can be subject to great forces during delivery, especially during prolonged labor and if they get "stuck".

Babies are often strained when In-utero, particularly in the final four to six weeks of pregnancy, as the rapidly growing baby develops in an ever diminishing space. Babies may find themselves stuck in an awkward position that they can't free themselves from because of a lack of space to move.

This space can be further diminished by things such as uterine anatomical variations, excessive weight, multiple pregnancy, and, commonly, poor postural habits during pregnancy. 

If you've woken up with a strained neck from sleeping in an awkward position overnight, you can imagine the pain a baby might experience after weeks of strain being stuck in an awkward position.

Healing strained tissue

Babies generally self-repair exceedingly well, but sometimes damaged tissue persists or takes a long time to recover. Early detection and correction by your osteopath may lead to full recovery.

By applying gentle corrective forces by hand, osteopathic manipulation helps stimulate healing of strained tissues. As treatment is so gentle no baby is too young for treatment. We do not use "thrusting" techniques on babies. 

Osteopathy is a cost effective approach to treating babies and children with a wide range of common problems. Improvement is often seen after the first one or two treatments, and resolution is usually seen within five treatments.

Early correction may prevent all the sequelae associated with a strained baby such as:

• ongoing courses of antibiotics/medication
• expensive and difficult diet regimes
• parental insomnia
• developmental delay
• post-natal depression
• baby-parent bonding
• relationship difficulties associated with living with an unsettled baby
• surgery.