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Report: an osteopathy session for babies
Colic, stiff neck, headaches, difficult digestion… Your little one may experience some inconvenience after birth. The beginnings of a life are sometimes a bit laborious! In the human body, everything is connected and one dysfunction can lead to another. If your infant has stiff neck and colic, there may be a cause and effect relationship. The right thing to do: go to a specialist osteopath. Not only will this professional rebalance your newborn’s metabolism, but he will also come out relaxed.
Never crackles
Noa, 1 month and 8 days old, bundled up in his padded pilot, looks like a cosmonaut in hibernation. Inside the maternity ward of the Louis Pasteur hospital in Sélestat, behind the porthole windows of the boat, gentle heat in addition, it is the same feeling of envelopment as in a cozy cocoon. Dr Bernard Roth, pediatrician and osteopath attached to the maternity ward, is devoting his consultation this afternoon to “manual osteopathic medicine”. “Hello little friend! Are you the mom? Come next to me. Masha does so, it’s more reassuring for her baby. ” It’s better ? He continues. “Yes, it is much less blocked! “On her fourth day, before leaving the maternity ward, Noa had been reported to the doctor by one of the midwives for a stiff neck. Trained for a long time in all practices “other than pure and hard obstetrical gynecology: sophrology, acupuncture, homeopathy, freedom of childbirth postures …”, as said by Dr Christian Grall, the head of department, the midwives of this maternity always proceeds thus. During the regulatory discharge visit, they ask Dr Roth to diagnose any problems that may require manual movements: spinning feet, cracked collarbone, excessive crying, difficulty sucking, stiff neck, then, a little later, sleep disturbances. , colic, reflux, flattened skull at the back, ear infections, chronic crying … It mobilizes, stimulates, mass, but always after having done a complete traditional clinical examination, or even prescribed additional examinations if necessary. He insists: “This is not esotericism, but medicine. “. “I push, I pull and Noa stretches…”. Today, Macha consults because Noa has digestive problems. The doctor removes the pilot from the baby. But not the socks. “They all hate being barefoot! He takes it delicately “in a cradle”, the small head molded in its large palm and the body stretched out on its forearm. “Never under the armpits because you have to avoid anything that could put him in spinal hyperextension. “He now surrounds the fluffy skull with his two palms:” The warmth of my hands has calming virtues. In this practice, everything is gentleness, reassuring, mothering. Without ever making creaks, manipulations or strong pressures. But always with successive and delicate mobilizations, light touches and massages. Manual medicine osteopathy (Dr Roth takes this name) “consists of a set of gestures that make it possible to diagnose with the fingertips, then to manually treat the baby’s dysfunctions by restoring the mobility of his muscles, ligaments, tissues and sutures. He said.
Manipulations of the skull to release tension
“So Noa, ready for the adventure?” “Smile to the angels, to his mother or to the pediatrician, we do not know … The doctor explains to Macha. “In your womb and during her birth, Noa was subjected, like any baby, to more or less traumatic mechanical constraints. All the more so if it was necessary to resort to forceps or suction cups. Hence the micro-displacements between the occipital bone, at the back of his skull, and the first vertebrae of his neck. Her head began to spin, tilt to the side, and the muscles in her neck contracted in a reflex movement: it is torticollis. I’m going to check out the bony sutures on his skull, which maybe overlap a bit more. The doctor delicately inspects the fontanelles of Noa, lying on her back. With his fingertips, he feels the suture between the occiput and the temporal bone, the “mastoid”, where the “posterior torn hole” is located. A funny term that defines where the nerves controlling large organs, like the stomach and intestines pass with the pneumogastric nerve. “I put this zone in“ approximation ”: I perceive a relaxation under my fingers. I can also put it in tension and then wait for the tissues to relax, ”he says, stimulating acupuncture reflex points in an area of the skull called the“ headache triad ”. According to this Chinese medicine, it passes through the governor vessels, gall bladder and bladder, reflexotherapy points through which the practitioner rebalances the vegetative nervous system. “I push, I pull and I rock successively each of these points. The baby stretches… ”
The baby on the pedal of happiness! Dr. Roth then puts on a latex glove and slides a finger into the baby’s mouth, triggering the soothing sucking reflex. The same time, this “palate grip” allows him to assess the way in which the baby is sucking and, simultaneously, to stimulate, from the inside of the mouth, the area of tension between the occiput and the sphenoid bone, always at the base of the skull. Then, he mobilizes another bone under the tongue, the hyoid, because Noa has a little trouble swallowing. Not very happy this time, but much cooler when the doctor delicately “works” his diaphragm which he puts in tension and whose movement he accompanies as soon as he inhales.
From viscera to the back, a complete exploration
The pediatrician now keeps Noa in a seated position against him. With both hands, he mobilizes his stomach, pushing it calmly down. Then the doctor lays Noa down again. His palms on the baby’s stomach, a little strained by gas, he massages in an anti-clockwise direction. “I disperse the excess energy from the viscera starting from the navel, going outwards. If he was constipated, I would do the opposite, ”he says. Then, using his fingers folded in claws, on each side of the navel, and going once again towards the sides, he practices Tibetan massages: “I thus seek the vibrating sensors of the skin. The purpose of these gestures is toflood the spinal cord with mechanical signals to block painful messages from the organs, looking for a relaxation of the tissues. »Last episode of this session which lasted more than 20 minutes: Dr. Roth tweaks like a guitar string, each level of Noa’s spine, lying on his stomach. It insists between the T9 and T5 vertebrae, a determining space for the functioning of the digestive tract. Then, with folded fingers, it blocks, pushes, kneads like a good paste the skin under the neck, rich in neurovegetative sensors intended for the cervical spinal cord, leaving, on each side, a line of small white circles.
Twist the neck at stiff neck
Kewan has a stiff neck on his left side, but does not appear to be suffering martyrdom. For now, he unleashes a series of funny faces at the audience, as only newborns know how to make. His mom, Jessica, positions herself as Masha earlier, next to the doctor who wraps her warm palms around the baby’s ears and forehead. “Come on, my good man! I turn, I test the limitation of the rotation to the left… ”With the pulp of the index fingers, he stimulates the suture above the nose, to free the tear duct. Then he puts a finger on each of his temples to exert pressure on the bones, the sutures of which may also play a role in the fixation of the torticollis. “I can tell he’s not in pain! He said reassured. Besides, Kewan is yawning his jawbone. With the baby’s head wrapped on both sides, the doctor gives him a rocking motion in “neither yes nor no”, from right to left. It then mobilizes all the cervical vertebrae. Finally, with his gloved finger, he makes a “palatal grip” while reproducing, with his head flexed, the same movement of neither yes nor no. No squealing. On the contrary, Kewan is relaxed, almost asleep! Standing, Dr. Roth places her face down obliquely against her torso, head down to mobilize her from right to left, taking advantage of the effect of gravity. “The stiff neck is clearly unblocked, he comments for David, the dad, and Jessica. Corn, to improve the result, I advise you to correct your daily postures, so as to stimulate his gaze on the other side: as he is in the left lateroflexion rotating to the right, position the cradle so that his gaze is drawn to the light on the left side. Raise his bed by a single wedge at the top right. Place his mobile at the foot of the bed. Give her the bottle on the left side if possible. Avoid him slipping down from his deckchair, so as not to aggravate the extension of the neck when he tries to see his entourage … I see him again at 3 weeks and 2 months! Kewan fell asleep close to his mom. “The mom is cool, so is the baby. Normal, it is the emotional photocopy! », He concludes.
Find an osteopath
– How? ‘Or’ What ? In the yellow pages, “Doctors” section: Manual medicine osteopathy. On the sites of specialized unions. Ostéos de France, Syndicate of Manual Medicine-Osteopathy of France.
– The prices charged. In the maternity ward, support from the department’s budget. In town: 50 to 70 € per session of around 30 to 45 minutes. The part of the medical consultation reserved for diagnosis is reimbursed by Social Security, but not that devoted to osteopathy care. More and more mutuals take care of this part (check with the practitioner in advance).