Osteopathy for Infants and Children

Birth itself is a huge physical challenge on both a mother and a baby.  If the process goes well, it will give a baby minimal trauma but even a normal birth can impart degrees of trauma which may affect baby immediately or later in development.  Going from supportive environment of the womb, protected from the outside world suspended in a weightlessness fluid environment, to the outside world having to breathe, digest food, deal with the effects of gravity and environment around them is a huge learning curve and challenge for all newborns.

What do we treat?

The most common complaints for which parents bring in their children to consult Osteopaths include:

• Reflux, constipation, digestive system problems
• Infantile colic, irritability & sleeping difficulties
• Birth trauma, misshaped or flattened head/skull, head/neck turning issues
• Glue ear, middle ear infections, otitis media
• Feeding, swallowing & sucking difficulties
• Down Syndrome related breathing problems
• Cerebral palsy, autism
• Developmental delays and learning problems
• Behaviour issues, concentration problems & ADHD
• Sports & trauma injuries
• Growth & postural problems, scoliosis

Essentially, there is no limit to what Osteopaths can treat because we aim to improve how the body functions and get the body healing itself.

How do we treat?

When treating infants and small children, we use a wide variety of non-manipulative techniques that are very gentle and safe, hardly looking like we’re doing anything at all.  The techniques make their whole body relax including their nervous system so they often fall asleep.  The most common technique is called Cranial Osteopathy and not all osteopaths learn this technique, with the training being predominately post-graduate and takes time to master.  For more information on this technique, please see the Cranial Osteopathy page.

When looking for an Osteopath for your babies and young children, you need to find someone who specialises in this technique like your Osteopaths at Rowville Family Osteopathy.  We also do not utilise joint manipulations like chiropractors on infants and young children due to the risk of causing serious injuries such as vertebral artery dissection and stroke, and because these other gentle techniques are so safe and effective.

How Soon Can I Bring My Baby In For A Check Up?

It is safe to have your baby checked up at any stage.  Often it is good to have them checked early after their birth as the compressive force through the uterus can cause early strain patterns, these are easy to treat and early detection prevents problems later.  Obviously there are many different types of birth including Caesarian section, forceps, breach, and posterior presentation, each of these can affect babies in different ways and a detailed history will be taken by your Family Osteopath.  We can also detect problems that may require further diagnosis and/or treatment and will refer you on when we do.

We advise particularly that after certain births babies should be checked including:

• very short labours (less than 4 hours)
• long labours
• atypical deliveries including forceps, ventouse/vacuum and breech
• Caesarean birth
• multiple pregnancy

Free Infants & Children’s Clinic

We believe that every child deserves to have the best start to life that it can.  So we hold a free Infants & Children’s clinic every 3rd Saturday of each month to help give children in need the best start we can offer them.

We also offer all babies a free 15 minute assessment as a community service any time of the week, regardless of whether the parents are clients of ours or not.  So please ring the clinic to make an appointment now on 03 9780 8980.

The dates for the infants and children’s clinic for 2012 are:

• Saturday 21^st January 2012
• Saturday 18^th February 2012
• Saturday 17^th March 2012
• Saturday 21^th April 2012
• Saturday 12^th May 2012
• Saturday 16^th June 2012
• Saturday 21^st July 2012
• Saturday 18^th August 2012
• Saturday 15^th September 2012
• Saturday 20^th October 2012
• Saturday 17^th November 2012
• Saturday 15^th December 2012