Osteopathic Treatments on Babies

[Music Playing] Su Laurent: Hi! I'm Su Laurent. I'm a Consultant Pediatrician and Medical Advisor to the Baby Channel. We have come today to Viveka, which is an integrated healthcare practice to witness a session with an osteopath and a tiny five-week-old baby. Well, here I am with Jane and that's her baby Ruby and we are about to witness the osteopathic consultation, over to you Lin(ph). Lin: Okay. Jane, how has Ruby been since the last treatment, since I saw her last week? Jane: She is not bad. I think at times there is a little deterioration in her behavior after feed. She is a little uncomfortable, sort of, when I put her down and she is a lot more rigid when she is uncomfortable and things and just a little uncomfortable. Lin: How is the cold been? Jane: It's gone away and come back again actually. She was better a couple of days after I saw you and then the last couple of days she has sort of been a bit naughty in bed again and then I am trying to get away with some coughs like sort of -- Lin: I mean, what I am working on now is really her chest, because it feels tight again and quite dis-congested in the upper part of her chest and between her throat. Her head and sinus has felt better though than they were last time? Jane: Haven't had anymore mucus and it was since I saw you last, because I was getting quite a bit too -- Lin: You mean like every time she drinks something up there is a lot of mucus and that's -- Jane: Yeah, and she haven't had any of that since I saw you last week. Lin: Okay. I want to work a little bit more on her chest and then you were mentioning something about her suckling. Jane: Yeah, we saw you the day she was born, and she did an amazing thing with her -- Lin: I visited you in hospital. Jane: Yeah, the day that she was born that's right, she did an amazing thing that sort of opened it, and my husband at the time, he was kind of amazed, she had her finger on her mouth and while you were working on that, he could feel the finger sort trouble further down the throat and be much more sort of grabbed by her -- Lin: Her positive sucking and deeper and -- Jane: I think in the last week or so, she just became either a little over-confident or lazy, she is just a little bit more fussing over the breast and not as, she is a little sort of -- she used to really grab hold of it and get it in, and she is not doing that much, just a little bit of fussing and I don't know why. But I wanted if you could have a look. Lin: Okay, let's see, I could wash my hands, yes, okay. Jane: I am afraid. Lin: I don't think I am going to get in. Nice girl! Oh, there she goes. It may not be quite as deep. Jane: It's in the last, maybe four or five days, and she had a whole different sort of attitude towards it. I thought she is getting over-confident. Lin: When I first saw her, she actually had a bit of difficulty opening up her jaw, she was sort of biting rather than sucking. Jane: Not anything serious about that. Lin: Again, with a quick birth things have to change quickly to get out. So the sort of molding of the head comes a bit quick and it's a bit of shock, and so it doesn't, it just takes a bit of time to kind of -- Jane: Straighten up. Lin: Straighten up again. But if you can imagine the baby, if the baby's head is perfect then after birth it will be open right. But if it's a little bit what we call deflexed or backwards, you get a lot of pressure coming through here and then they are kind of bit stuck, so it can't open up and they don't -- and their palette isn't quite right. So that's why we are going to just work on a little bit. Working mainly on sort of her, the cranial base, let's see if that will change. Oh! I see what's going on, yeah, you are right, you are right, I am talking too much, not paying enough attention. That's what that was about. Jane: So what it was about. Lin: Okay, wasn't that all? Jane: That's a good example of child discomfort, we are just getting some hands at the bottom here. A little bit of fussing and up to a straight relief, that noise. Lin: You can take one to suck around something, maybe use your other hand, oh! That is fine. I mean, the suckling is a reflex and the older they get, the more sophisticated or more control they have over them. I think with this cold she has had, actually little bit of sore throat as well. Jane: How about - look at this. Lin: I can feel it, her ears are just part of the congestion. There we go. That's it. Now did that change? Jane: Yeah, that's good, actually -- Lin: Good. That's what we are waiting for. Jane: And she has got a hold of it a little tighter as well actually. Lin: That's what we are waiting for. And part of the element was the cold and her sore throat. Jane: What's going on? Lin: Okay, that's it. Jane: Great! Thank you very much! Su Laurent: Thank you very much Lin to letting us watch you in action and Jane and baby Ruby as well. Lin, it was really fascinating for me as a conventional pediatrician to watch you doing what you do, because obviously it's something that I didn't understand at all, I just know, I say it work and I know it works. Would you be able to tell us something about what you do? Lin: Well, I am contacting and sense the anatomy of the baby, and the osteopaths have very much an understanding of how the organization of those structures relates to how things are functioning. So, we are looking at things at a local sort of tissue level, in terms of how is the quality of that, but also in terms of the articulation, in other words, how does one tissue relate to another tissue and then globally, how is it all working as a unit. So, we are trying to in a sense work with how the body is correcting and changing things physiologically by going through the anatomy or the organization of the anatomy. Su Laurent: And the other thing that I always find interesting is that your training is very similar to my training. I think the big difference is you learned a lot more about feeling with your hands. And also you didn't learn anything about drugs, do you? Lin: No. Su Laurent: That's the main - or chopping up, we have to learn how to operate as well. But otherwise, it's four years --? Lin: Yes, four years. Su Laurent: -- before you can actually start being let loose on children and adults. Lin: And if you really want to work on babies, you should also do some post-graduate work. Su Laurent: So, it's a long training. Lin: Yeah. Su Laurent: And just a really ignorant question here, I know the answer but hope you would probably do, people keep asking me this, what is the difference between a chiropractor and an osteopath? Lin: Oh dear, now you put me on the spot. I think, we share some of the same techniques, we have slightly different philosophy in terms of how we are trying to treat. Osteopathy is very much looking at the body's circulation, both in terms of nerve function, but also the circulation of the nerves, circulation of blood, vascular, lymphatic, in regard to sort of an interchange of fluids across all other mediums. Whether that's extra-cellular or intracellular, and as an instance, that's what we are looking for in the treatment to provide. Su Laurent: Thank you very much! It's been really informative and lovely to watch, and I think you can see a lovely, calm, relaxed, chilled out baby. Thank you very much! Jane: Thank you!