Cranial osteopathy - a cure for sleepless nights!

During B.'s first year and a half, we were the envy of our friends with children. We had something that they would have given anything to have; a baby who slept through the night! It wasn't a long night - it lasted from 10:00pm to 05:30am, but it was a long, uninterrupted block of sleep. And for that we were truly grateful.

During this golden sleeping phase, we considered ourselves very lucky. We hadn't trained her in any way; we'd never left her to "cry it out" or used any of the famous methods touted by various childcare specialists. It was pure luck. When tired and weary friends complimented our child and told us we must be doing something right, we just laughed and shrugged. In the back of our minds we knew that this luck wouldn't last forever. We were going to have to pay our sleep dues some time.

And then, suddenly (overnight even!) our luck changed. At about one and a half, B. started to wake up a mere hour after she'd gone to bed. And once we'd settled her, she'd wake up again an hour after that. And then the next hour too. The third wakening was always the killer. She wouldn't go back to sleep in her own bed no matter how long we stayed in there with her. No amount of breastfeeding, singing or cuddling would work.

By that time we were so exhausted that we would always bring her into bed with us. And once she was in our bed she would feed to sleep some of the time, but her sleep was quite fitful. Often she would just wriggle and feed the whole night through. This was a stressful time for all of us, as the lack of sleep was making us all feel mentally and physically drained. I began to see what our friends had been going through for all of this time...

We began by just assuming that this was a "phase" she was going through, perhaps due to teething or the weather, or that she was possibly coming down with something. But she was fine and totally normal in every other way. And the phase didn't pass! A month or two later we decided to try out cranial osteopathy.

Cranial osteopathy involves very gentle pressure applied to points on the skull and spine, in order to improve the flow of spinal fluid and mobilise bones in the skull, which can be mis-aligned from birth.

This therapy had first been recommended to us during our NCT class. A fan of all things natural, our teacher had told us that that it can cure a whole host of baby ailments; including sleep problems, difficulties with breastfeeding, colic, ear infections, and excessive crying. And over the next few years we'd also heard success stories from friends, who'd seen their babies and children "miraculously cured" of various ailments.

It seemed too good to be true, and certain people around us were very dubious. But when you're not getting much sleep, you're willing to try anything!

So to Muswell Hill we went, where we'd found a lovely lady called Jessica Ovett at the Muswell Healing Arts Complementary Health Centre. B, enthralled by the fishpond in the waiting room, full of enormous fish and surrounded by miniature plastic frogs, was not so keen to go upstairs and see the osteopath. Her annoyance at having her pond play interrupted was soon replaced by curiousity about "lady's" collection of toys.

So while Jessica took some details about our problem, B. played happily. Then she started to assess her and give gentle treatment. To the layman (me!), this seemed to involve Jessica placing her fingers on certain points of B's body, and getting her to move her arms, legs or head every so often. Luckily she managed to do this while B. was wandering around the room playing with toys; apparently her experience of working at the Osteopathic Centre for Children taught her how to perform her therapy "on the move".

I was told that with cranial osteopathy it normally takes a few sessions before you see any improvement, so we booked another appointment for the following week.

That first week, nothing changed and we were just as tired and cranky as before. However, we tried to remain optimistic. The first few nights after the second treatment were just as bad as ever, and I was starting to get dubious about whether it was all a big waste of time and money.

However, on the fifth night after her second treatment, B. slept through for the first time in ages. We tried not to get too excited about this; it could easily have been a fluke. But then she did it again, and after two weeks of blissful sleep we felt confident that this would be her new sleeping pattern. And apart from the odd blip for teething or illnesses, she's still sleeping really well.
#:o)

As with any treatment, cranial osteopathy might not work for everybody because we're all different. But based on our almost magical experience and those of people we know, I would definitely recommend giving it a try!