At her wits end, a mother recently presented with her screaming nine-week-old infant. The baby was obviously in pain and had fussiness issues. Mom said that she arched her back constantly and hated her car seat.
She was desperate to find any help while feeling that her baby could never be happy. I reassured her—this is what we do.
I spent the entire visit just helping the infant’s body work out that arching strain pattern. When mom came in for the second visit, she was incredulous with a “new” baby. I checked her infant from head to toe as her initial zero-second brain cycle had gone to 210 seconds. Happy Baby = Happy Mom.
There are two points to this essay. A one-visit correction is very rare—maybe one baby in a hundred or two hundred. I tell every parent that you are looking at 5 to 8 therapy visits on average.
I very specifically told this mother not to tell her friends that only one visit was needed. Otherwise, they will all come in with their babies and want the same single visit miracle too.
The second point involves our Lancaster infant research where we saw about 170 arching babies. Initially, we really did not understand how critical that fascial strain pattern was for health.
The pediatric profession generally ignores this arching strain. Because it is missed at birth and childhood, my heart breaks when I see adult “archers,” who have needlessly suffered their whole lives with many conditions.
During the first year of our project, when we tried to do specific techniques for each fussiness issue, our results were fleeting. Then we found if you worked the arching strain out of the body first, babies became happier much faster.
My suggestion for infant providers: If the baby is an archer on your evaluation, clear that critical strain pattern first over a series of visits before you do your techniques.
Better yet, let’s resolve the arching issue at birth.
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