Babies & Infants

Crying babies

Babies cry for a reason!

Once your GP or pediatrician have excluded any serious cause for your baby's crying then those babies that cry excessively may be divided broadly into three condition categories:

• Colic or gut pain
• Gastroesophageal reflux GORD
• Over sensitised nervous system

Many babies will have more than one of these conditions together.

A crying baby is a significant problem for parents and siblings of new born babies and is implicated as one of the causes of post natal depression. Sleep deprivation, stress and self-blame sometimes results.

A baby can develop problems long before it is born. While growing in the uterus the baby’s head may grow in a distorted way if it is fixed in a constrained or awkward position such as held against the mother’s ribs or pubic bone. 

At birth, not only its head, but also its whole body will go through a complex and very stressful process. The cranial bones have the ability to overlap and bend somewhat to accommodate this process. 

However, in many cases the baby's head retains some of the compressive and twisting forces of the labour. This happens particularly when forceps or ventouse are used, or when the delivery has been long. A very short delivery also can create problems, as the head doesn't have time to accommodate. 

Babies who have been born by caesarean sections can also have problems. The caesarean is often performed as an emergency because the baby is experiencing difficulties with its passage through the pelvis or the obstetrician may have to use force to extricate the baby.

 In very young babies these problems might include crying or irritability, windiness and colic, sleep difficulties, feeding difficulties or early developmental problems such as lack of head control.

As the baby grows the tissues become less pliable and any structural changes become more difficult to deal with meaning it is better to consult an osteopath earlier rather than later. 

If you have a newly-born baby suffering, don’t wait until ‘they grow out of it’.  Call us on 09 4733529 to see how we might help your baby.  
 

Why Cranial Osteopathy for babies?