Have you tried a Cranical Osteopath

[arworld]

Hi all,

My 13 months old son has never been a good sleeper but we do not want to do any sleep training ? let alone the controlled crying.

He has never been a good sleeper and the first time he slept through was when he was around 8 months old! It lasted about two months, and then teething, a cold came about and we went to Spain for a holiday in May which messed up his sleeping pattern completely. He is generally a happy boy but gets really tired during the day as he does not get enough sleep. Also he always has blocked nose and we have tried everything ? nose drops, vicks, vapour drops etc but never worked?.

He was a breast fed baby until four days ago but he has finally taken bottles so we have been giving him a bottle feed at night for the last three days and he takes 6 oz of milk. Even so, he still wakes up at least once a night. When he wakes up , he is very distressed, arches his back and inconsolable until I breastfeed him. Once he settles down, he wakes up at 5 am and doesn?t want to go back to sleep afterwards.

Apart from me and my husband getting really tired, we are concerned that he is not getting enough sleep so constantly tired. Someone suggested a Cranial Osteopath and we are seriously considering it. Has anyone tried it? What does it involve and can you recommend anyone please?

Thank you.

Anna

[jctg]

The pithy answer is that there is no scientific evidence whatsoever that it works. All the evidence is anecdotal. It is alternative medicine. In my opinion it is quackery.

My partner took our daughter to a cranial osteopath (I didn't realise what it was at the time) when she was a few months old because of sleep issues. She described the questions she was asked by the practitioner as like being cold read by a medium eg. "do you eat a lot of houmous?" (?!?)

[Sol]

I tried them for other problems. I used a private one in Neal's yard in London Bridge, his name is John, he is very good and works with children as well, not sure if he still works there. The foundation of cranial osteopathy treats children for free, they do ask you to give them a donation if you can though.

http://www.nealsyardremedies.com/cranial-osteopathy

http://www.occ.uk.com/?page_id=19

I give my baby hipp good night milk before bed, I notice they sleep better when they are full. I also find necessary to do sleep training, except when they are unwell. When my baby wakes up I go to her room and put her dummy back and she normally goes back to sleep, I also put her some toys, so she amused herself if she wakes up.

However, whatever you do I think they normally wake up when they are teething or unwell, so even is they already started sleeping through the night, there will be occasion when they wake up, until they are older and get all their teeth and her immune system gets stronger

[EmmaDoran]

Hi - we tried a cranial osteopath on the advice of our breastfeeding counsellor as our son was arching his back and was also being sick a lot (turned out to be gastro reflux). We went a couple of times and it involved ...well, not much (just from watching it). It was quite expensive and we didn't see any changes in our son (although we only went 3 times so maybe that was down to us not giving it enough of a chance). I know some people swear by it though and have heard stories of children changing dramatically - just didn't work for us :-S

[chantelle]

i took my son to one, but only once so have no idea if it would have worked or not. (he had bad reflux)

Maybe you should see how your son adjusts to the bottles before making an appointment. Mine slept much better once we moved to just a quick breastfeed before bed. In my opinion, any waking by a healthy child after one year or so can be as much about habit as anything else. Maybe try offering water or half milk - half water and gradually diluting until he realises there's no good reason to get up in the night.

On your initial description though - 8 months is early in my book to sleep through. My son didn't even come close until 11 months or so.

[MrsP]

I took my daughter to see a cranial osteopath when she was about 13 months old. She had always fought sleep and found it very difficult to unwind and relax. She had two sessions after which she was much more relaxed and easier to deal with at sleep times. My son has also had several sessions with the same osteopath but the results were not so clear cut. One must of course bear in mind that all young children of this age will have some difficulties sleeping and in my view children often need to be taught how to go to sleep from being wide awake. Whilst I certainly recommend seeing an osteopath, with the addition of stopping breast feeding and the recent holiday, it may be a case of too many things going on at once and adding something extra may be too much for the little one to deal with. I would deal with one thing at a time and if nothing improves see an osteopath. Mu experiences with an osteopath are extremely positive and I send both kids to have a bit of an MOT a couple of times a year.

[arworld]

Thanks Guys.

We will give few more weeks until he settles down and may look into going to see an osteopath.

Anna