The human body has an amazing innate healing ability. Supporting the body’s inherent ability to grow, develop, repair and heal with osteopathic manipulative treatment has endless potential for the prevention of disease and optimizing an individual’s potential.
When is the best time to start? Treating mom prior to conception and during pregnancy is a great way to start. Optimizing health and nutrition as well as lowering toxic exposures for mom and dad before conception offers a good start. Moms benefit from treatment during pregnancy to optimize motion in the pelvis for a safe delivery and after birth to reposition the pelvis to a happy place before the ligaments tighten up again. Newborns deserve an osteopathic evaluation and treatment, preferably in the first few days of life. Most of early infant issues such as difficulty establishing effective breastfeeding, spitting up, a misshapen head with a crooked neck, colic and sleep issues have a structural beginning that can be helped with gentle osteopathic treatment.
The infant skull is very soft and easily molded. If the forces of labor are prolonged, augmented by too much Pitocin, or the position of the baby is not optimal for an easy delivery to name just a few factors that can cause trauma to the infant skull, central nervous system function may be compromised. Gentle release of these compressive forces can lead to happier babies and parents! Because structure and function are so interrelated in the health of our bodies, supporting the optimal relationship of bones, muscles, embraces, tissues and fluids is key.
Periodic treatment during childhood is helpful for the wellbeing of the child. During the first 2 years of life, the brain does a tremendous amount of maturing. And the child is rapidly growing, changing body proportions and testing the laws of gravity. This commonly results in compressed tailbones or bumps on the head. Just as your car runs better when tuned up, so do children! Often very young children who have experienced osteopathic treatment will tell their parents when they know they need a treatment after a fall or during an illness. It’s much easier to reverse an illness or injury early in the process with osteopathic treatment, a healing diet and natural medicines. We see children for all sorts of issues including ASD, ear infections, asthma, sports injuries, ADHD, developmental issues, cerebral palsy, genetic issues and other special needs.
Healthy children benefit from yearly tune-ups too, especially after sports seasons or injuries. Other key times when treatment is helpful is at transitional times such as 5 to 7 years and at puberty when a myriad of changes are taking place. Remember, you don’t have to be sick to be better!
Adults benefit from osteopathic tune ups and functional medicine evaluations to address underlying issues and improve the comfort of their body.
Conditions Commonly Treated:
Many issues in infants and children can be treated with gentle effective osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM)
- Difficulty latching during breastfeeding or bottle-feeding
- Trauma from a long or difficult birth/irregular head shape
- Torticollis (side-bent neck)
- Colic, irritability, excessive crying
- Infants with too much or too little muscle tone
- Gastroesophageal reflux
- Colds, coughs
- Allergies
- Asthma
- Developmental delay
- Autism spectrum issues
- Ear infections
- Eczema
- Cerebral palsy
- ADHD/ADD
- Sports injuries
- Falls
- Scoliosis
OMT helps children adjust during episodes of rapid growth.