This week Mike and I were called out to see a 3-month-old baby with breastfeeding issues. This baby was by far the tightest baby we have ever seen. The mother told us he was fine until he was about 4-6 weeks old. At that point he could no longer lay flat on his back or on his stomach without rolling onto his side with a twist in his body.
The history behind his delivery was insignificant other than he was born rather quickly. She then told us that she had sciatica so severe during the pregnancy that she couldn’t walk. When she laid him down for assessment, we saw him go from the normal position that she was holding him into a corkscrew type position that pulled from his pelvis up to the right side of his face. It was causing distortion on his cranial and facial bones. He was laying so twisted it took our breath away. This structural problem was due to the infant being stuck in utero.
I held the baby knowing that I would need him to start CFT/IDM, and he immediately started twisting, rolling, and unwinding in a corkscrew type pattern. I had Mike step in to help unwind the lower body since the movement was so dramatic. He needed 4 hands. His shoulder girdle was pulling fiercely into the right side of his face and mandible. After 3 more webs, his body finally relaxed. While the corkscrew pattern was still there, the baby was able to lay comfortably and fell asleep in 5 minutes.
I love working with mothers who can see the bigger picture. She realized that her baby was in a compromised position in utero and the fast birth probably added to the structural problem. As we saw in our Infant Research of about 500 babies, it could take 4-6 weeks for in utero/birth trauma to lock in and show up as a problem. This was true for this baby as well. She said she wished she would have had him treated immediately at birth. That is our mission for all babies. On a side note, the mother ask for a treatment. ….she wants to prevent future uncomfortable pregnancies and tight, unhappy babies. Smart momma!
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