A five-month-old boy presented with silent reflux and poor sleeping habits. He also had congestion, gas, and constipation. Mom said he arched a lot and always got upset at night.
She also said that after the 20-week ultrasound, he never moved in her womb. That fact is a strong precursor for full-body fascial tightness. He was born via cesarean section with the cord wrapped around his body—two more red flags.
He presented with a zero-second brain cycle and had a specific fascial strain running from his lower esophageal sphincter (LES) into his head. Otherwise, his body felt relatively clear of strain. In therapy, that restriction started to release, and his brain cycle opened to 50 seconds after the session.
In the full-body fascial web concept, the silent reflux and sleep issue were one and the same entity. A tight infant head almost always signifies sleep difficulty. When the reflux strain started to release, his brain started to cycle—the human body works so beautifully.
Mom had a different opinion than his pediatrician. She said he had silent reflux, but his doctor was hesitant to agree with her. I was onboard with mom because of the clear strain from his LES, through his esophagus, and into his head.
Pediatricians may say that a baby will “outgrow” reflux. My real-world reasoning is that 40 million American adults have GERD. Maybe they did not outgrow it since the fascial strain from their birth trauma persisted into adulthood.
Conventional medicine needs to realize that almost all newborns have suffered soft-tissue birth injuries during those 40 weeks. Birthing may be the most difficult activity we do in life.
To get to the root cause of many conditions, the best course of care would be to treat injured newborns on the first day of life to prevent many of the later infant, childhood, and adulthood conditions. Gillespie Approach Training needs to be a required skill for all newborn providers.
