What is baby therapy?
The way to understand it, baby therapy in our office is hands-on gentle treatment that can change the current lack of perfect health a newborn is experiencing. Be it inability to properly latch, reflux, colic, constipation, gassiness, torticollis, poor sleep pattern, tongue / lip tie, cranial asymmetry, or any other slew of presentations a new baby may be experiencing.
Dr. Kaminsky is a chiropractor with pediatric training with many years of experience who works with infants as new as one week, all the way up to any age. The care he provides is non-force, no cracking gentle chiropractic and baby attuned hands-on craniosacral therapy as the predominant modality administered with babies.
The reason babies have issues can be due to many factors, including the actual birth. The birthing process is a traumatic experience in itself. Coming into a new environment, being squeezed through the birth canal, or being taken out in a C-section, coming out on the other side is a challenging experience for the baby.
As a result, the baby’s nervous system, organ systems and other physiologic mechanisms may not fully kick-start as optimally as nature intended especially in a C-section. So a soft hands-on approach from an experienced pediatric therapist to facilitate the necessary corrections may be all that is needed. Then allowing the catching up of the faculties to reach optimal function can be achieved usually in just a few office visits.
The driving life force is the craniosacral mechanism of the body. Once that is fully optimized through gentle, focused, experienced hands-on care, your baby will overcome those issues. Normal function and optimal cranial realignment will allow for normal development of your baby.
Sometimes a simple unwinding of the musculoskeletal system is needed where the baby is allowed to twist and turn in a muscle stretch type of way, in the therapist’s hands allowing for the movement to naturally occur, while holding a position of the baby on the table. Many times it’s a matter of gently releasing tight tissues around the jaw, neck and spine allowing for a greater range of motion (ROM) within the joint structures.
Often the mouth muscles and jaw joints need a gentle nudge to teach the baby its own potential. The Palate too must be evaluated for symmetry and pliability, and corrections made accordingly as the palate is a common source of issues. A subluxation complex may be present within the spinal structure that needs realignment. Most of these things are mild but can make a big difference for the baby in restoring optimal function.
The symmetry of the head and facial bones must be inspected, especially of the oral cavity. The suckling reflex and potential tongue and lip ties need to be carefully assessed with a gloved pinky finger of the practitioner. Tongue tie and lip tie are very much over diagnosed with only 5% of babies having true ties that need surgical intervention.
When a baby has latching issues, it is often a presentation within the cranial bones themselves, where you may be dealing with cranial misalignment, often due to the birth process. This can be corrected.
Dr. Alex Kaminsky has participated in many Upledger Craniosacral Therapy pediatric classes as well as continuing education with the ICPA (International Chiropractic Pediatric Association). Call to schedule an appointment for your baby.
