Our team prides itself on our ability to work with a variety of patients with varying needs and issues to address.
Today, we want to highlight the experiences that we and one family had in our work with baby Charlotte.
For some background, sweet Charlotte was born in a position known as Frank Breech, which means that she came out of the birth canal with her bottom being born first. Because of that positioning, she was folded in half tightly to accommodate fitting through the pelvis and cervix.
With that in mind, we noticed some things starting when Charlotte was about four weeks old that we wanted to work on supporting. This looked like:
Tongue and lip tie revision support
Hip mobility support
Core strength and stabilization support
Support through Torticollis and silent reflux
Umbilical hernia support
Addressing disorganized fussiness
Supporting a weak Vagus Nerve
While every baby’s program is customized, we designed a program to see Charlotte once per week, and this was for a couple of reasons.
In the beginning, Charlotte’s nervous system was a little too dysregulated to make any real progress. She was often too fussy in a session or too upset to complete all of the therapy.
By seeing her more frequently, we were able to help reassure her that we were a familiar and safe presence - something that parents don’t always consider when seeking help from practitioners. Remember that our little ones are smart! And it’s developmentally-appropriate for them to prefer their mothers and fathers; NOT a stranger, such as a physical therapist!
Charlotte benefited greatly from a focused approach to therapy that combined CFT as well as hip and leg mobility stretches and fascial release. We also focused on trunk support in order to strengthen her abdominals and back muscles - two things that can support movement milestones as well as the alleviation of umbilical hernias. Today, Charlotte’s is completely gone! In a more subtle, yet incredibly beneficial technique, we worked on stimulating her Vagus Nerve, which is an integral part of the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for regulating various involuntary bodily functions, such as heart rate, digestion, and respiratory rhythm. Oftentimes, little ones with digestion issues can greatly benefit from this method of treatment, as it helps keep the baby in a ‘rest or digest’ state versus being in a stressful state of fight or flight.
Today, Charlotte is cooperative and happy during therapy. She’s calmer in her body and confident in her movements. We are currently supporting Charlotte in her milestone of sitting up independently and starting to crawl - two accomplishments she is much closer to achieving given her foundational support.
If you’d like an assessment of your little one and where we may be able to help, reach out to us today at https://www.physiobabypt.com/.