Craniosacral Therapy or Chiropratic for Infants?

i am cutting and pasting some info i have written for other moms - hope it helps! and please let me know if you have any questions!!
J.

we see a traditional osteopath instead of a chiro or cst practitioner. as for osteopathy - here's a few links to help you learn more. chiropractic care is an offshoot of traditional osteopathy as is cst (cranial sacral therapy). they took certain beliefs and manipulative theories to use - but not the whole package. i have been to some amazing chiropractors and know people who have had great experiences
with cst - but once i found a traditional osteopath who does omt - i have never been back. osteopathy is more gentle than chiropractors - there is no 'cracking' involved. i have been to some chiros who do not crack much - but it is still a bit more forceful than an osteopath. not only has our osteopath helped with oliver's tort and plagio (along with all his other therapies and 2 DOC bands) i think it has helped keep him healthy - i see it as preventitive medicine. he has never taken antibiotics - didn't have an ear infection until his 3rd birthday, never had tylenol or any kind of cold medicine. he has gotten sick - but we go right away for a treatment and compliment it with homeopathy and his body fights off whatever he has. another thing that has made me a believer is when my mom started going. she had broken her ankle years ago - and after surgery never really gained full feeling in her toes and the circulation was off. after the first or second treatment - she woke up in the morning and she felt the sheets pulling her toes down. she was beyond excited!!! and she was also happy as her skin stopped looking scaly and dry as she now had some circulation.

please let me know if you have any other questions. i am not an expert - not even close - just a patient who is incredibly curious and interested in educating myself about all types of things to help my son! and here are some links...

http://traditionalosteopathy.com/cranial.htm
http://traditionalosteopathy.com/children.htm#two
http://www.osteopathiccenter.org/index.html
http://nyosteopath.com/evan.swf
a great book - dr. fulford's 'touch of life'

good luck
J.
ps - i have been to great osteopaths in london, los angeles and new york if anyone wants a referral. i have a friend who went to one in colorado - and we are about to go to one in florida as we are moving to new orleans for 6 months and there is not one traditional osteopath listed in the entire state of louisiana! :-) if you know of one - please let
me know!

We have used both for our now 9 month old for treatment of acid reflux. The results were great I wished I'd done it sooner but I didn't know anything about Craniosacral for acid. We found a wonderful doctor here in Temecula that specializes in both pregnancy and peds. I've since told many new moms to get this done as soon as possible after delivery...I really think it would of saved us a lot of early issues with Lily. Good Luck

Hi S.:D

I have seeing my chiropractor for the last 4 years. I had 2 visits a week during pregnancies. Both of my children DD-3.5 y/o and DS-23 months have been seeing our chiropractor since birth. They are also not vaccinateed and are in the best of health. Their immune system have and are developing naturally.

They have regular visits weekly along with me & daddy.

Here's some copy & paste:

The Vertebral Subluxation
A subluxation simply means a bone that is slightly out of place and fixated (stuck). Chiropractors find them and adjust them back into the proper position. When a bone in your spinal column is out of place, usually due to trauma or
stress, it causes the nerves around it to be irritated.

Vertebral bones that are subluxated cause interference
in your nervous system. Whatever organ or
tissue those irritated nerves go to will be affected.
Restoring the function of your nervous system is
what chiropractors do.

** The first time we all encountered our first subluxation was at birth **

Chiropractic care should be a part of everyone's life from
the moment of birth to the time of passing on. Chiropractic care places the patient on a physiologic path which allows the body to express its potential without interference.

It is important for parents making health care decisions to
remember the words of Dr. Sid Williams: "Chiropractic first,
medicine second, surgery last!"

Please do make sure the chiropractor you choose if you choose to go this route is experienced with babies/children.

Quest to Health Chiropractic Care
Dr. Wil Untalan, Jr.
5182 Katella Ave, Ste 102
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
###-###-####

Best Wishes,
~ M. ~

My infant grandson (Jacob) suffered badly from reflux. My son and daughter-in-law took him to a specialist in cranial sacral therapy. Three gentle treatments cured him totally. They were very calming treatments; Jacob used to sleep peacefully through each treatment. There were no adverse effects at all.

On the other hand my son suffered from the same as an infant and we took him to doctors and chiropractic clinics with no positive result.

I am a mom of two adult sons and a grandmother of five.

Dear S.,
Greetings!!!

I highly recommend contacting my CRANIAL SACRAL CHIROPRACTOR, Dr. Curtis Buddingh (who is amazing with everyone and especially babies). He was referred to me by my midwife when I was preggers with my dazzling son, Dylan Orion, and I definitely know it was because of his adjustments and good prenatal vitamins and diet that I experienced a most amazing delivery with Dylan naturally. As you can imagine, though, birth can be an intense adventure for a baby. And when Dylan arrived his jaw was a little misaligned from knocking against my pelvic bone, and my midwife suggested we take him to Dr. Budding immediately. So, 2 days after his birth Dylan and I both received the most amazing cranial sacral adjustments from Dr. Buddingh, and magically Dylan's jaw aligned just after that one adjustment. Dr. Buddingh definitely is a MIRACLE WORKER and is so gentle. As you can see, we love Dr. Buddingh immensely and continue to get adjusted by him every few weeks. And, just to let you know, Dr. Nicholas Kambourakis is the other CRANIAL SACRAL CHIROPRACTOR in the office, and like Dr. Budding, he also specializes in babies and children and is also quite incredible.

Here's Dr. Buddingh and Dr. Kambourakis' contact data:
13371 Venture Blvd.
Sherman Oaks, CA 91432
(818) 986~8484

Please call or e~mail me if you have any questions: (323) 906~2784 or ____@____.com

L. (Mama to 24 week old Dylan Orion) : )))

My mom worked for a chiropractor for many years who loves children and loves to work with them so anytime we visited my home town our daughter had a visit with him. He was always very gentle and made a game of it and she was never upset or anything and actually seemed more comfortable and like she slept better after these visits. All kinds of things can happen to their alignment even while traveling through the birth canal and then there is the fact that especially as they move into toddlerhood they take a lot of tumbles. Her first visit was at about six months.

Definatly Cranio First, only if you have a practitioner that has "The Gift". It is the gentelest type of therapy around. If your Practitioner is good, he/she will detect the cerebral spinal fluid rythems in a moment and be able to tell if there is any obstructions, blockages or what ever may be wrong or corrected. We also had little Tyler "adjuste" at 3 months by our Chiro...Now, for all you Moms about to freak out, dont worry, they dont go "BANG-SMACK-CRACK"...He pointed out that Ty was out of place right around t2-t4...I felt it....He took his "Activator" and CLICK, and it went back to in place...No pain, no screaming no tears, but what happened next was amazing. As we were leaving the chiro office, we went to check his diaper. He had urinated. We changed him and was ready to leave, when all of a sudden you can "SMELL" something...Back we go into the washroom, and to our surprise, he pooped, and pooped and pooped and pooped....Ive never seen so much out of something soooo small...Anyway, what we discovered was that the part of him that was out of place was obstructing his bowel. Once back in place, it was ALL GOOD...So there you have it.....
PS: Only go to a Chiro you know and trust and has a reputation for working with babies....

I'd follow Jen's advice. I do see a chiropractor regularly (since my back goes out a lot.) When I go regularly... I go less and less. But since I missed months of treatment, I'm back to weekly. I did take my 2nd born for a newborn adjustment. I used to take my 3 yr old son. He is 8 now and my daughter is 3.5. Both refuse chiro adjustments and have for a long time because of the "neck thing." In a chiro adjustment they are just a little more "rough" with a little more strong pulling of the neck each way to help align it again. My children simply HATE it. I don't blame them. As an adult, I just tell myself it's part of the course.
But I did notice personally that the adjustments helped my son when he had an ear infection. My girlfriend noticed the same. Her firstborn got LOTS of antibiotics and her 2nd went 2-3x a week during an ear infection and she came out fine....
Like Jen, I'm also more "natural living" (I'll try anything alternative medicine - with good results!) and I really have to look into the osteopathic treatment for my kids.

Hi S., I am a Chiropractor and have been trained in cranial sacral therapy. I don't really work with infants but can give you a good referral. I think it depends on what is going on with your baby, but I would try Cranial Sacral first. The amount of treatments depends on the condition. If you would like to give me more information I'll help you go in the right direction.
Good Luck, H.

I did for my cholicy new born. she was calm through out the seession at least! not sure of the long term affects, because i couldn't afford to go very often. I do believe in this type of thearapy. I also have a friend who does Yuen Energy Healing which always works well with my kids...Anyway, the cranio sacral person was in Toluca Lake, can't remember her name but she shares the complex with Dr. Golan Nissim (chiropractor)

Both of my boys (3yrs and 9mos) have seen a chiropractor regularly since they were newborns. When my 3 yr old was born, he had to be suctioned out which gave him a horrible cone-head. It did not go away for 3 weeks and when I finally brought him to my chiropractor, she adjusted him with gentle pressure (just used her fingers). Within a day the swelling on his head was gone and his head is perfectly round now. There are so many benefits to chiropractic care! My kids have been pretty healthy (which is a miracle since they're in daycare!) and they enjoy getting adjusted. I'm happy to recommend my chiropractor who adjusts a lot of children. She's fantastic and she even has a playroom set up in her office, if that's an indicator of how many people go to her. There is also an accupuncturist in her office who gives great homeade remedies to me when my kids are sick. If you want my chiro's info, just ping me!

I have a 6 year old with Cerebral Palsy, and we went to Dr. Christine Anderson a few months after birth when we noticed Piper's head was not forming right. Honestly, I cannot tell you how she did it, but after months of treatment, my daughter has a PERFECTLY formed head. No flat spots, nothing. Her forehead was angled backwards and the sides near her temples were leaning in...her Pediatrician wanted her to wear a helmet! After Dr. Chris, she is BEAUTIFUL and her head is better shaped than all our friends with "normal" children. I TOTALLY recommend it!

T. Nelson

Yes! I have used both craniosacral and chiro for both my daughters from the time they were babies to now (1 year and 5 years old). I have found them both to be an excellent gentle therapy for colic, teething, ear infections and other sicknesses. Plus I think its good to get babies adjusted from time to time since they are growing so quickly. If my babies were particularly sick, I would seek treatment for them twice in a week and that would speed along recovery. With my first, who had a very difficult time nursing, it really helped instantly She would nurse wonderfully after her treatment and sleep really good after that as well. Now I try to get them adjusted every month if I can. If your on the westside I have a great, highly trained practitioner ( a mom of two babies herself) who comes to your house. She's very intuitive and just a wonderful person all around. Feel free to email me if you want her number.

Hi,
We used a craniosacral therapist for our son Zack. He was in the hospital for pneumonia for a week. When we got out he seemed to just cry and cry uncontrollably. So, we took him to a therapist in Santa Monica who was great. He seemed to calm Zack down and showed us how to do it ourselves. We only needed to take him twice and the trauma seemed to be relieved. We were thrilled.

M.

JW: I know this is many years ago, but I just found this post through a google search and just in case you're still out there I'm looking for a good Osteopath and/or cranial trained chiro in LA, we are moving to Playa Vista and I want someone to see my 5 month old.

Thanks!

Go to a chiropractor who specializes in children, not just anyone. I have heard or read it is good, but you must know someone who does it professional. A man by the name of Ron Shelley in Southern California, Orange County, is the one I knew who did it, and people spoke highly of him. Get references perhaps from his office if he's still in the business, which I am sure he is. Good luck

They are both amazing. I especially like Craiosacral because it's like magic for infants and it's very gentle. Babies will sleep right through the session. I have seen babies who where not nursing or latching well, not sleeping, having "colic", be cured in one 45min session. I knew a mother who almost gave up breastfeeding altogether and with one session was able to nurse. I'm a labor and delivery nurse and always recommend parents take their babies, especially if the birth was long or traumatic..ie: c-section, vacuum, forceps, pitocin induction etc....Hope this helps, good luck, M.

Hi there,
Both my children (4 and 6) have had regular Chiropractic care since birth. I also have regular care but didn't start until my 20s and would probably be in better shape if I'd had it since the beginnin! We've done it maybe every 2-3 months for them just to make sure everything stays aligned and then if they have a bad fall, I'll take them in. My son was born with the cord around his neck and the adjustments really helped with reflux and general discomfort he had at first.

I think the most important thing is to find a Chiropractor who specializes in, and has lots of experience with, children. There should be no need for neck cracking, for example, with small children. The use of two fingers and gentle acupressure does the trick. It has always "tickled" my children and they have fun going to the office since it has colors/books/toys/stickers/etc, for kids. If you can find the right dr. and environment, it can be great.

-K.