Babies and Children

Question 1

What is craniosyntosis?

Answer 1

Early Fontenelle closure - causing abnormal head shape

Question 2

What is Pre-Eclampsia?

Answer 2

Raised blood pressure; raised uric acid in blood; fluid retention; occurs late stages in pregnancy.
Severe pre-eclampsia - flashing lights, headache, vomiting, abdo pain.

Question 3

What are the risks of Pre-Eclampsia

Answer 3

Premature birth - mothers livers and kidneys do not function properly.
Bed rest at home or hospital for remaining pregnancy - to reduce blood pressure.

Question 4

Who is more predisposed of Pre-Elampsia

Answer 4

Twins, existing HBP, family history.

Question 5

Name 3 stages of birth process

Answer 5

Dilation - regular contractions to 10cm dilation
Expulsion - 10cm to birth
Placental - birth to expulsion of placenta

Question 6

What is a breech birth?

Answer 6

involves buttocks presenting first - complete; frank; footling; transverse

Question 7

How do you get in touch with effects of birth trauma?

Answer 7

Get in touch with birth process as baby or adult
Adult - informed awareness; visualise birth process in action; encourage patient to visualise their birth; use time fulcrums.

Question 8

Birth trauma - what are the 2 main elements?

Answer 8

Shock
Physical forces exerted on baby - compression; rotation; distortion; pressures; impingements on nerves; brain; organs.

Question 9

Describe shock effects of birth trauma? (NB this answers would apply to babies and adults who experience shock)

Answer 9

Increased heart rate
Solar plexus highly stimulated
Cardiac plexus activated
Breathing rapid and shallow
Diaphragm contracted or tightened
Whole body contracted and tightened - muscles
Blood drains from periphery
Lose pre-frontal cortex in adults
Sympathetic nervous system highly aroused = decreased digestion or shut down; increased heart rate and breathing; increased adrenal function.

Question 10

What are the effects of shock at birth

Answer 10

Remain in system for life if not addressed - person in a remained state of overwhelm
Sympathetic fight/flight mode
or Freeze mode
Person has to work harder at everything as shock impacts more readily on system.
Babies - colic; cry; scream; restless; agitated
Personality - shy; withdrawn; hyperactive; angry

Question 11

What are the physical affects of birth trauma?

Answer 11

Infants head is compressed in birth canal through buttocks, vertebral column to head against pelvis. Rotational forces as baby twists through birth canal.
Compression pushes bones of cranium against each other - if severe bodies natural healing can not happen.
Focal points of compression: Occiput and Sub-Occ
Neck and thorax - T4 - cardiac plexus and heart chakra
To abdomen and solar plexus, coeliac plexus and T9
T12/L1
Pelvis and SI joints - lower limbs to feet
Base of cranium susceptible to forces
4 bones surrounding FM = pressure on spinal cord or medulla = bones can be distorted

Question 12

What is a whole body twist?

Answer 12

Whole body twists through birth canal to make optimum use of pelvis size.

Question 13

What are the occipital condyles?

Answer 13

Base of occiput and sit on condyles of Atlas C1 forming 2 synovial joints between Atlas and Occiput. When this articulation is restricted - prevents free movement between atlas and occiput.
Causes of restriction = tension; compression; holding patterns which prevent free mobility and lock these synovial joints.

Question 14

What are the symptoms of a restricted occipital condyle?

Answer 14

Vital structures pass through this area so compression might reduce blood flow to brain.
Baby = poor sleep; overstimulation; restlessness; easy startling.
Child = hyperactivity; restlessness; impaired concentration
Adults = headaches; migraines; tightness and tension in occipital and sub-occipital area.

Question 15

How would you engage with a whole body twist?

Answer 15

Shock - HC; SP; T9; Diaphragm; Phrenic Nerve; grounding; find midline; into parasympathetic; mirroring calm presence of therapist.

Integrate whole body twist from sacrum using double contacts at pivotal areas - T4, T9, T12/L1. Does sacrum rotate? Is rotation reflected in these pivotal areas?

Cranium - Sub-Occ release; Crown- Cranial Base

Occipital Condyles - slightly higher on occiput (same height as sub-occ) - explore, follow into rotation, follow to counter-rotation.

Interpret and balance - Falx; Bowl Hold

Imagine working with newborn if working with adult

Question 16

How would you treat in pregnancy?

Answer 16

Sit at side of couch so mother sitting up or lying on side. Shoulders; chakras; HC and SP; Sacrum; Cranium

Question 17

How would you address ear infections in a baby or child?

Answer 17

Address any shock in the system - HP/SP/ Plexi
Identify patterns of restrictions
Local factors - Eustachian tube through subocciput; occiput; mastoid tip; temporal - consider allergies eg dairy.
Check mobility and CSR - venous drainage. - = See info on pathologies for ear infection.

Question 18

What is colic and how would you treat?

Answer 18

Ask about the birth, how they feed, sleep, overall general demeanour.
What is it? Baby screams for hours, pulls legs up to abdo, nothing consoles. Cause not known so tends to be something that parents put up with. No medical treatment. Tends to be present for first 3 months.
CS Integration treats shock and trauma & physical and compressive forces from the birth process which also cause shock and physical tensions.
Shock can remain in system for life if not addressed - person in a remained state of overwhelm
Sympathetic fight/flight mode
or Freeze mode
Person has to work harder at everything as shock impacts more readily on system.
Babies - colic; cry; scream; restless; agitated
Personality - shy; withdrawn; hyperactive; angry
From birth trauma, compression in sub-occiput (one of main areas for holding tension/ emotion) can cause restrictions on structures passing through this area - vagus; glossopharyngeal; spinal accessory; jugular vein.
Tune into system - identify fulcrums;
Shock - from birth; early cord clamping
Vagus nerve supplies parasympathetic stimulation to heart, lungs and stomach and regulate cardiac, pulmonary and digestive functions. Any impingement on the vagus nerve during the pathway - particularly to the stomach.
Treatment -
Heart Centre - release holding in heart centre and cardiac plexus
Solar Plexus - release sympathetic overstimulation and coeliac plexus and shock and also is the area of the stomach.
Sub-occipital release - release compression; jugular foramen (through which vagus nerve passes); tensions in the sub-occipital muscles
Crown - sacrum - release any birthing patterns and whole body twists.
Consider family dynamics too in restlessness and irritability, poor sleep. Is baby picking up on mums anxieties. Having a baby with colic might stress parents out more because the baby is inconsolable. Feeds into anxiety more.
Consider diet; allergies; parents taking time to care for themselves.
Whole CS integration within family field.

TAKEN FROM CCST FB PAGE:
To treat most cases of colic or colic-like conditions, the cranio-sacral therapist concentrates on the principal areas: the cranial base and the solar plexus region. The first, the cranial base, concerns the occipital bone and its relationship with the atlas - vertebra (Cl). The cranial base is the area most susceptible to compression and distortion during the birth process, due to its location and the direction of the pressure exerted on this area by the baby’s passage through the birth canal. It is also an area of vital importance to the overall health and functioning of all individuals, as it is close to many other important structures. These include the jugular foramen, a hole in the base of the skull between the occiput and the temporal bones, through which passes the vagus nerve, or nerve X. This provides the main parasympathetic nerve supply to most of the digestive system; its compression can lead to over-stimulation of the nerve, causing persistent spasm of the digestive organs and, consequently, colic.

Also located at the cranial base is another important structure: the superior cervical sympathetic ganglion. This is the uppermost and largest ganglion of the chain which runs alongside the vertebral column providing sympathetic nerve supply to the viscera. Compression or pressure on the superior cervical sympathetic ganglion may lead to sympathetic stimulation throughout the whole nervous system, resulting in hyperstimulation of all the viscera, and generalised over-stimulation, restlessness, tension and hyperactivity. This will be particularly manifest in the plexi, including the solar plexus, which may then create tension and spasm in the digestive system and therefore colic.
The simultaneous stimulation of both the vagus (parasympathetic) and plexi (sympathetic) nervous system is particularly troublesome to the digestive system, due to their conflicting functions: the parasympathetic supply aims to increase digestive activity and gut motility; while the sympathetic supply seeks to close down the digestive activity and shut the food pathways in the gut such as the cardiac sphincter and the pyloric sphincter. The result is conflict, obstruction and spasm, and the many manifestations of colic.
Increased sympathetic nerve stimulation will also lead to increased stimulation of the adrenal medulla. Adrenalin is released and this causes further generalised stimulation, tension, restlessness and hyperactivity, as well as creating a vicious circle of sympathetic-adrenal over-activity.
Equally significant to the incidence and treatment of colic and associated conditions is the local region of the solar plexus, the umbilicus, the diaphragm and the pylorus.

The solar plexus is, in addition to stimulation by pressure on the cranial base, also liable to be stimulated by shock, trauma or distress. This is something with which many adults will be familiar, but babies, with their more sensitive systems, are more responsive, and more susceptible to the digestive disturbances which ensue. Tension is also widely recognised (both in adults and in children) as manifesting in the diaphragm, and this again is all the more evident in babies. Tension in the diaphragm causes restriction of other, associated structures, and in particular constriction of the oesophagus as it passes through the diaphragm into the stomach. Tension can also affect the function of the pylorus, through which food passes from the stomach into the small intestine.
Constriction of these digestive passages is of greater consequence to small babies precisely because they are smaller, and the passages are therefore narrower so that tension and constriction easily lead to pain and difficulty in passing food or liquid, or even to complete obstruction. If left untreated, tension in the diaphragm, solar plexus and cranial base may well predispose to subsequent disease later in life: most notably such conditions as duodenal ulcer or hiatus hernia.

Question 19

What is Torticollis?

Answer 19

Neck in fixed state of side bending to one side and rotating to opposite side - result of birth - leaving rotational pattern in neck. In a baby it might leave the baby only able to feed on one side if breast or bottle fed.

Question 20

How does Torticollis happen and how would you treat?

Answer 20

SCM muscle pulls neck into rotation causing sidebending.
SCM muscle is innervated by Spinal Accessory Nerve and C2
Spinal Accessory nerves passes up C4321 up through FM and out of JF.
JF is an extension of the OM Suture which is formed between the temporal and occipital bone
SCM Muscle attaches both sides of the OM Suture (to the occiput posteriorly and the temporal anteriorly)
Twisting pattern creates a cycle of compression and twisting.
Rotation & twisting of occiput and temporals compresses OM suture &; JF = impinges and overstimulates Spinal Accessory Nerve = overstimulation of SCM muscle unilaterally = pull neck into sidebending = further compression of OM suture and JF = continues. Twist at C2 which innervated SCM muscle causes spasm in affected SCM muscle.
CS integration addresses whole underlying pattern.
In babies = will see the baby holding head down to one side or show a rotation to the opposite side = find a twist in their system. May lead to difficulty breastfeeding from one breast. Caused by a twist during the birth process.
Holds - for baby - crown - cranial base; sacrum- crown; crown=thorax.
Holds for adults - sub-occipital release; fascial unwinding of neck; birth process.

Question 21

What might you consider with a child or adult presenting with dyslexia; dyspraxia or LD?

Answer 21

Temporal lobes - disturbances in brain tissue due to compression in cranium which restricted development of temporal lobes through restriction of blood supply and CSF.
Causes & treatment plan:
Birth trauma; head injury; meningitis & NO FAMILY HISTORY = CS integration
No trauma & clear family history = genetic and not favourable to CS integration

Question 22

What are the symptoms of Meningitis?

Answer 22

Intense pain behind eyes; headaches; migraines; neck pain; sensitivity to light; tightness in membranes; poor concentration and memory; tiredness.
In CS treatment will find highly contracted meninges.

Question 23

What are the causes of asthma and how would you treat?

Answer 23

Approach/ treatment

1) Case history - find out conditions relating to the lungs ie asthma or asthma brought on by seasonal allergies.
2) Birth process - are there contributing factors - premature; birth trauma; shock
3) Any damage to lungs
4) Any medications from early age
5) Genetic predisposition
6) Any accidents involving water eg near drowning

Identify focal points - usually find restrictions at T4 vertebral level.
T2 to T6 is sympathetic supply level & pulmonary plexus; cardiac plexus, superior mesenteric plexus.
Parasympathetic supply to vagus nerve - may find a compressed sub-occipital area where the vagus nerve is being impinged by a restricted jugular foramen. Vagus nerve also passes through oesophageal opening in thoracic inlet - so think reciprocal tension membrane system.
Check quality of breathing - patterns; shallow or deep.
Check diaphragm - tense, relaxed, shock held
Emotional centres - HC and SP and interaction between them.
Any interaction with any of the surrounding organs.
Thymus gland and thymus chakra.

So: HC and SP; coeliac plexus; pulmonary plexus; lungs - scapula contact; thorax contact; T2 to T6 sympathetic; vagus nerve - so track pathway as parasympathetic fibres supply the lungs; fascia connection - pleura of lungs and quality of pleura which are interrelated to pericardium and diaphragm. Emotional connection - anxiety.