Baby Osteopath Balwyn

Babies have no other way to tell you they are irritated by “something”. 

It’s the something we need to work out. And that can be done!

We want to take a thorough history of your little ones experience in this world including feeding, sleeping, movements etc. Let’s decipher where that crying is coming from.

Don’t settle for “it’s just what babies do”, if your gut is telling you otherwise my friend.

A newborn baby’s gut is a very sensitive.  There is a lot of development to take place to enable their body to process nutrients. Sometimes their body is tense from positions in utero, or from traumatic birth impacts on their skull and torso.  It really does happen!  The colicky or refluxy baby may benefit from unwinding their body from tension patterns that are identified by the practitioner in the history and hands-on assessment.

Sometimes babies a born with this and other times it’s noted as the weeks pass.  It can be related to mouth anatomy so you may notice other signs while feeding  such as:

• falling asleep
• leakage
• difficulty to sustain a good latch

It can also be a result of a head-turning preference if baby has considerable neck tightness on one side (torticollis).

Our practitioners work through what’s behind the flat spot, mis-shapen skull as well as using cranial osteopathy to balance skull bones.

• ventouse
• forceps
• emergency caesarean
• prolonged difficult labour
• clavicle dislocations
• injuries and bruising
• face and breech presentations

Although a vast majority of the population cannot fathom how a baby could possibly need treatment, there are many circumstances that require their delicate body to cope with external pressures including birth.

Assessing your baby may be the most valuable thing you do for them post-partum, to improve their tissue balance and movement. We think it’s kind of like “setting their body up for success”.

Have you ever noticed what you do if you need to burp (or bottom burp!)??

Have you noticed how you start to shift around wiggling your body this way and that.  It’s intuitive right!

Then the gas clears and relief is felt.

Well now think of your baby’s capacity to manage this for themselves. They can definitely get the squirms but if there are restrictions in tissues and movement in their little torso, skull or hips, this can affect their capacity to relieve their own wind.

Our job is to find these restrictions, release them and re-align their structures so there is pliability for their gut to release wind.

Is baby squirming when you lie them down? Crying maybe?

There’s a number of things to tick off the list here:

• trapped wind
• pain with position
• clingy stage of the development (Wonder Weeks is an awesome resource for this!)

There’s a bit of detective work with this which is why we get you to think about before coming in and complete a quick questionnaire to help our practitioners have some understanding of your challenge prior to your baby’s appointment.

This really needs to be checked!!

And it doesn’t mean anything a seriously wrong but it’s worth assessing baby for motion, pain, other related structures and consider any potential trauma that may have occurred during their birth or since.

Head-turning preference (HTP) is really common. 

Funnily enough it can stem from:

• tight oral structures including the tongue
• birth trauma pain restricting motion (consider what it feels like if you have a sore neck)
• sustained position in utero, engaged in the pelvis for a period of time.

We will check many things out to determine what the cause is and then treat accordingly.  We’ll also show you haw you can treat baby & strategies to reduce the time to recover.

This is common in the early newborn stage and may just require more practice.

Consider any meds you may have had during birth that can result in some suckling challenges that usually resolve.

However, other issues can be involve too:

• tight mouth anatomy
• ties (tongue, buccal, lip) – and this doesn’t mean they HAVE to be cut!!
• falling asleep at the breast (NOTE: your baby is NOT lazy!)
• baby’s positioning at the breast – yes this can majorly impact feeding!

Our practitioners are experienced to assess these possibilities and more.  Book in for a consult!

Our Osteopaths can assess your baby if you have suspicion of a tongue tie. We also work closely with a dental group if baby needs to be referred on for further assessment for potential release. We can provide that referral for you. CLICK HERE for more info.

If it was recommended to have baby’s tongue-tie cut/lasered, it is common to need body-work after wards.

Body-work can help those muscles and connective tissues held tense by the tie, to relax off and improve their function. Our treatment may also involve suck training to assist baby to improve their function.

Is baby’s head always held one way?

Yes it can be rebalanced!! We treat babies neck, spine, and often their mouth to release tension patterns.

You can even get involved in this with some massage and other movement strategies to help your baby move far easier!

This is all about finding what has not unravelled now baby is out of the constricted space of the womb, and giving them a relaxing massage and mobilising their body. Often parents comment that although they weren’t aware of any tightness, they now notice how much more relaxed baby is since seeing our practitioners.