Baby B already goes to physical, occupational, and speech therapy multiple times a week, but the pediatric dentist who performed her lip and tongue tie severing procedures recommended craniosacral therapy.

What the hell is that?  I have no clue.  If you google it, you’ll see craniosacral therapy defined as:

1. a system of alternative medicine intended to relieve pain and tension by gentle manipulations of the skull regarded as harmonizing with a natural rhythm in the central nervous system.

With the recommendations of the owner/speech therapist at the therapy place, we set up craniosacral therapy for Baby B.  I couldn’t tell you what happened.  It looked, to me, like the therapist put his hands on the baby’s chest and back and she squirmed around.

During the therapy, he asked what the birth process was like, and I told him that she was a c-section.  The speech therapist explained that she spent some time in the NICU, and he asked if it was for breathing.  I said, “yes, initially; but she stayed to get the MRI of her brain and monitor her kidney function.”  He asked if she was ok now, except for her head size, and I said no, because she still has kidney problems and might need a kidney transplant.

After about twenty minutes, he said that it seemed like her body was done, but he still hung on to her feet until she calmed down.  The therapist said that the body has its own intelligence and knows what it needs to do.  He said that her body needed to go through the birthing process, and he asked if I noticed that she seemed to be moving around like she was going through the birth canal.  I think I held back my super-skeptical face, but he probably could read the skepticism anyway.  “I know it sounds like hokum,” he said, “but it works.”

When he left, I kept shaking my head.  It didn’t even look like he was doing anything, but he tells me that her body needed to go through the birthing process?  It was just too weird.

But — in the last week, I have noticed a change.  The other therapists have noticed.  Her arms and hands are looser.  Her back is straighter and shoulders are back more.  Her legs and hips are more limber and looser.  He could burn incense and chant incantations for all I care — if it helps her move more and feel better, I’ll do it.  I can’t wait to see what the next sessions will do for her!