What is Osteopathy?
Day to day, our body is exposed to stresses and strains from work, home and hobbies. As our body stiffens up, we struggle to cope with these strains and injuries develop.
Osteopathic medicine restores your flexibility by fixing injuries and loosening areas of pain and tension. Osteopaths use Osteopathic manipulative treatment. This focuses on relieving tension typically by massage, stretching, mobilisation and manipulation. The techniques chosen varies to the individual depending on your age, general health, the condition you have, and of course, your personal preference.
All Osteopathic manipulative techniques are first explained to you before being performed to make sure you are happy with your treatment.
If you have any queries that you would like answered before your appointment please feel free to contact us or call 01751 430335.
What is Cranial Osteopathy? Is it suitable for babies?
Cranial Osteopathy is a very gentle relaxing treatment suitable for almost everyone, including babies. Cranial Osteopathy can be used alone or as part of a 'standard' Osteopathic treatment. Cranial Osteopaths use subtle techniques to release tensions restricting natural movements in the head to return patients to optimum health.
Babies undergo tremendous forces during childbirth as they twist and turn in order to squeeze through the birth canal and pelvis. This is of course perfectly normal as the baby’s head is designed to accommodate these strains.
After giving birth - sucking, crying, yawning and general movement helps any accumulated tension around the body and head release. However, sometimes, especially with a traumatic childbirth or pregnancy, not all of these tensions go away. This can affect amongst other things feeding patterns.
For more information or to book an appointment contact us or call 01751 430335.
How do I know if Osteopathy will help my baby?
Osteopathy aims to gently relieve tightness and tension in the baby after pregnancy and childbirth. This tension may manifest itself in how the baby moves, for example, the baby may prefer to turn its head to one side more than the other, and how it feeds. The Osteopathic Centre for Children (OCC) identifies seven clues that suggests your baby may have some tension effecting how it feeds:
Does your baby prefer feeding from one breast or sleep/lie with the head always turned to one side?
Does your baby appear to have tension in one shoulder, making it more difficult to get that arm into clothes?
Do you/your baby have difficulty getting the head into the right position to get the nipple into the mouth?
Does your baby struggle to open the mouth wide enough for the breast? Does your baby ‘stop-start’ feed, or appear to ‘choke’ on milk flow?
Does your baby break seal during feeding: is there ‘clicking’ during a feed, nose congestion/snoring or noisy breathing?
Does your baby appear to be swallowing air as well as milk (hiccups or big burps after a feed)?
Are you uncomfortable during or after feeding, is it worse on one side?