I recently saw a child for homebased Early Intervention Occupational Therapy. The referral was directed to me because this mother had heard about craniosacral fascial therapy (CFT) and knew that is what her child needed. When I first met the family, the baby was four months old. He was a home birth and had three other siblings. The baby presented with his head tilted and turned to the right and preferred to be on his right side only. He only liked to nurse on the left breast and acted as if he was in pain when challenged to the left side. The baby kept his arms flexed tightly to his chest, and mom reported he was rarely in a relaxed state. He had been diagnosed with ‘tongue tie’, and had a surgical release completed a few weeks ago.
At this first visit, I assessed him using Dr. Gillespie’s approach for addressing infants with craniosacral fascial tightness. This baby was tight throughout his trunk, pelvis, neck, under his tongue, and upper trunk. Excellent releases were felt throughout with mom assisting the process by calming talking to the baby and holding his head. After just the first session, his arms relaxed to his sides, and he began to move his head from side to side. After six sessions, the baby moved freely to both sides, nursed equally, and used both hands in play with toys and parts of his body. No sleep, comfort, tightness, or movement issues were noted by the family or observed in the child. I discharged him from my services last week with six CFT sessions and a total of 13 sessions to be sure the child was fully able to participate in all aspects of self care, movement, and play. This baby is a sweet heart – anytime he sees me he creeps over and gives an award-winning smile and that look….the look of thanks!
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