When a seven-month-old boy presented, his mom said his whole body was tight. He was the tightest baby I had ever seen over 43 years of infant care.
He had torticollis, plagiocephaly, reflux, digestive issues, and gas. He went fourteen days without a bowel movement. He had trouble rolling over and moving.
He often extended his feet into a toe-walking position. When using his upper body, he clenched his hands into a fist. He was super-tight everywhere.
Physical therapists had freed up his neck. He had oral tie surgery, which helped his breastfeeding issues but just touched the tip of his fascial iceberg.
His medical doctors told mom that her baby was healthy and fine—she was worrying too much. She was torn because she knew that her baby was not right.
In connecting all of his dots, I felt there were three probable causative aspects. The first was a 45-hour hard labor, which created a lot of pressure inside his fascial web.
The second facet was the extent of his torticollis. The PTs were just looking at his neck, but a huge pelvic fascial twist was corkscrewing all the way through his trunk into his head. For the full-body fascial web to be free, the entire torticollis strain pattern needed to be addressed and released.
The third aspect was his constant arching where he would bend himself back to attempt to free up his body. I believe the perfect storm of labor, torticollis, and arching created his extraordinary tightness.
On the first visit, his pelvic twist and arching started to release as his zero-second brain cycle opened to 60 seconds. I expect him to do well with continued therapy.
These children currently fall through the cracks of the health system. Gillespie Approach Training for infants and newborns is a must for all neonatal providers.
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