Cranial Osteopathy for Babies

Crispy_Ambulance

Mojisola wrote: »

The cranial osteopath who I see also does a great deal of work with children, many through personal reccommendation. She has parents bring children to see her from a very wide area. They wouldn't do that if the treatment wasn't successful.

She has helped me a great deal over the years with a variety of problems. How it works may not be understood or accepted by science but that doesn't stop it working. It would be irrational to suggest that every problem I have seen her about was just about to clear up by itself and it was all down to coincidence or the placebo effect!

Don't knock the placebo effect - it can be very helpful.

But the "science" behind cranial osteopathy doesn't make any sense. It is based on "imaginary biology". And nobody is going to tell everyone that they wasted their money going to see a cranial osteopath.

Maybe you should ask your osteopath for some peer-reviewed articles showing how exactly it works? There is an interesting article from an osteopath here.

Mojisola

Crispy_Ambulance wrote: »

Don't knock the placebo effect - it can be very helpful.

But the "science" behind cranial osteopathy doesn't make any sense.

I don't want to hijack Katgoddess's original question - but just two points:

I don't knock the placebo effect - I think modern health workers underestimate how useful it can be - but when an unscientific method works that's the usual way it's explained.

I don't really care if the "science" doesn't make any sense - it makes me better when I'm ill.

daphne_descends

How can it be a placebo effect, the child doesn't know what is going on, it is THEM who change, not the parent/s.

Crispy_Ambulance

daphne_descends wrote: »

How can it be a placebo effect, the child doesn't know what is going on, it is THEM who change, not the parent/s.

An important thing to remember is that Correlation DOES NOT indicate Causation.

You or your baby may feel better after you have paid an cranial osteopath. That does not mean that the two events are linked.

That is why randomised controlled trials can help assess the efficacy of any treatment. Strangely enough, there don't appear to have been any for cranial osteopathy.

daphne_descends

But Crispy, if it works - regardless of science - if the baby is more content, sleeps better, not so colicky etc - what else matters?

fleetingmind

My wife has literally just taken our 5 week baby to one today. Our lady was superb and checked everything. Turns out our little one is lactose intolerant which we kind of knew as she has had ALLOT of trouble passing number 2's.
Her legs went slightly to the right which caused pressure on her intestine.
And she had a blockage in her head by the nose which has caused her sticky eye.

May all be rubbish but we feel loads better with the results and would recommend it.

My mum who use to be ward sister on a kids ward and swears by all this stuff and has seen loads of results. So it must be right if she says so!

ginvzt

I don't have a baby. I am not even pregnant yet, but ttc. My friend gave birth to a baby girl at the end of last year in Germany and they went to osteopath with the little one. She swears that her little baby is much calmer after the visit and sleeps much better. She had to have an emergency cesarean in the end as baby turned whilst in labour (?) and could pass through the canal and they thing this has stressed baby as well.

Crispy_Ambulance

daphne_descends wrote: »

But Crispy, if it works - regardless of science - if the baby is more content, sleeps better, not so colicky etc - what else matters?

I think you have missed my previous point.

I could stand on my head for 5 hours. My baby could sleep through that night.

The two events are not necessarily connected.

My argument is that it doesn't work. There is no evidence that it works and the biology it is supposedly based on is bogus. There are no magical pulses in the brain that connect to other parts of the body and nobody can manipulate the cranium of a child or adult because the bones fuse in infancy.

There is no physiological cause for colic, as far as I am aware, and it is somethign babies grow out of. Newborn babies cry a lot - it is what they do - and there very often isn't an answer other than time.

fleetingmind wrote:

My wife has literally just taken our 5 week baby to one today. Our lady was superb and checked everything. Turns out our little one is lactose intolerant which we kind of knew as she has had ALLOT of trouble passing number 2's.
Her legs went slightly to the right which caused pressure on her intestine.
And she had a blockage in her head by the nose which has caused her sticky eye.

May all be rubbish but we feel loads better with the results and would recommend it.

How did an osteopath diagnose a dietary intolerance? Did they do blood tests or skin tests? I really hope you get a diagnosis as serious as real lactose intolerance confirmed with a medical doctor and I hope you are aware that cranial osteopaths don't have to have any medical training.

What makes me cross about these people is that they are making (a lot of) money out of vulnerable new parents who are coming to terms with life with a newborn. Babies cry and as parents we need to deal with that.

daphne_descends

CA, quite the opposite, I do see your point, but think you might be missing mine. If I spent £35 on a CO visit and my baby slept through I would not care one jot if it was merely coincidence - and I fail to see the problem with that.

And I am a skeptical cynic through and through!

rosie-lee

Crispy_Ambulance wrote: »

Babies cry and as parents we need to deal with that.

Any mother who has had a baby with colic and a baby without, will agree with me, I'm sure, that there is a vast difference. A baby with colic, screaming for literally hours can hardly be compared to a baby without any problems who cries, as all babies do.

I took DS for cranial oestopathy, best thing I did. It is a parental instinct to try to comfort your baby and you really will do anything. It's not enough for some parents to be told that their baby will settle down by 3-4 months and some don't. (6 months!). I'd have walked the 20 miles to her practice for my baby.

The first session didn't show any improvement, so please be aware of that if you are just going for a taster session, but after the 2nd, it was like I had a different baby, honestly.

You will make your own mind up as to whether it is the right thing for you and your child, .... as all good parents do.