At 30, you can be quite idealistic about making the world a better place. In the 1970s, my vision was to help transform the pediatric profession.
But when the realities of life set in, almost everyone’s dream fades away. Forty-plus years later, I now see a clear path for mine.
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In the 1980s and 1990s, I was totally amazed watching children with asthma, earaches, headaches, and other “incurable” conditions heal with Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy. I envisioned teaching therapists to work in pediatric offices. That never happened.
When I approached all pediatric resources, no one was interested in my work—zero. In all honesty, I was angry and depressed. But unknown to me at the time, God was opening a much larger door.
When I worked on babies in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, I noticed that they never returned for further care. Moms generally said they were healthy and smart, going to their doctors only once a year for their required school physical examinations. I asked myself, “Did soft tissue birth trauma sow the seeds of many pediatric conditions?”
The 800-infant research project answered the question about fussy babies becoming happy and healthy babies. But do CFT babies grow up to be healthy children? Even though I cannot scientifically prove that the numbers of children with many pediatric diseases will dramatically diminish and most of them will manifest excellent cognitive function, over 40 years of clinical observation strongly supports that hypothesis.
Soft tissue birth trauma, causing fascial restriction, which I never saw on the radar screen in the 1970s as a periodontist, appears to be the root cause of many childhood diseases, which I was not trained for as a dental surgeon. I did not know what I did not know.
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When everyone embraces the newborn work as the global standard of care, I see the pediatric profession flipping from today’s disease managers to a trusted source of authentic health care. Since children will be healthier from birth, well visits will be more the norm. Pediatricians will teach families important topics like healthy nutrition, the dangers of smoking, alcohol, drugs, etc. and how to deal with emotions.
As an impressionable young boy in the 1950s, I respected the advice of my family doctor. Oh, how my life would have changed if he had stressed proper nutrition, advised me to stay away from alcohol, and taught me about empathy and compassion. I envision pediatricians shining as the standard bearers for truly healthy and happy children.
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