When baby Xan had bad colic at the tender age of two weeks, his mother Lulu Lytle, 33, wasn’t sure where to turn. Already a mother of two small children, Tom, 5, and Bunny, 3, she had never experienced colic with them and hoped that if she continued breast-feeding, the indigestion problems would sort themselves out. She had had an easy pregnancy and birth with Xan, born at term weighing 7lb 1oz (3.2kg), and even the breast-feeding had started well. But after some feeds, Xan seemed to be in a lot of discomfort, “sobbing after eating”.
“I tried Infacol drops (sold over the counter) before nursing, and fennel tea, both of which seemed to help, but a week later he was still arching his back and clenching his fists after some feeds. When he finally produced a really big burp, he would settle,” she says. But the pain the baby was in became distressing for Lulu to watch. Sometimes the elusive burp would arrive after 20 minutes or, at worst, three hours later.
There is no known cure for colic and most baby books offer the palliative to parents that they are doing “nothing wrong”, that it is something the baby will “grow out of” as the digestive system matures and they reach three months. Advice is often centred around strategies for coping with a baby who cries a lot, normally at a specific time of day (often early evening). For Lulu, the worst time was the midday feed: “Xan’s colic would happen suddenly, as if he had been pricked with a needle in the foot, and after feeding happily on the breast he would start to sob.”
When Xan was nine weeks old, Lulu was due to visit her in-laws for the half-term holiday, and decided to contact a craniosacral therapist, Nicole Ragueneau, who had helped her with back problems in pregnancy. “I knew craniosacral work was gentle and non-invasive. I probably saw her half a dozen times during my pregnancy, and I always had the same wonderful experience of energy and relaxation afterwards, as well as the most fantastic night’s sleep.” At short notice, Ragueneau agreed to see her in her West London clinic for a session that lasted no more than 20 minutes. “It was 6pm, after his bath. I held him in my arms and started to feed him, while she gently put her hands on his stomach and then his head. He seemed to like it and was peaceful.” The family set off soon after in the car for their holiday, and Xan slept all the way, waking for his 10pm feed and showing no discomfort. “The problem literally disappeared overnight, ” says Lulu, “and he’s never had another incident.”
Ragueneau says: “The role of the practitioner is to listen to the body’s intrinsic movement patterns in order to diagnose and facilitate with therapeutic procedures the release of any congestion and resistance, and to restore the natural function. With this baby it was very quick. Often there is a need for more sessions, depending on the resources of the baby.
“Approaching Xan, I felt his stomach and intestines, which were tense. By making light contact with his head, I was aware of compression on his right side between two cranial bones — the temporal and the occiput — which may have been due to unresolved pressures on the head during birth. This compression was squeezing the vagus nerve, which is connected to the large internal organs, particularly the stomach and intestines. By realigning the cranial bones, the vagus nerve was freed, and its function in the digestive system restored. I then returned to his stomach and intestines to integrate the work that had been done. It took about 20 minutes to rebalance his system.”
Ragueneau sees a lot of mothers with babies usually under three months, often because of birth trauma. Every problem is different. “Sometimes it is hormonal, or the state of the mother; quite often her nervousness and tension in her stomach can transfer to the babies and cause digestive problems,” she believes. “Sometimes there is shock involved, when a birth hasn’t happened as planned. In other instances, feeding problems arise when the baby has difficulties sucking. This can be compression of the vagus nerve.”
In Xan’s case, she says “the mother was confident, extremely relaxed, the baby was balanced and healthy, only the moulding process (of the head) had not been resolved”. Xan, now three months old, has never looked back. “It was extraordinary,” says Lulu. “Needless to say I have recommended her to all my friends, and even sent my mother and father to have a session.”
Emma Mahony is author of Stand and Deliver and other Brilliant Ways to Give Birth (HarperCollins, £7.99). It is available from Times Books First at £7.59, 0870 1608080 or www.timesonline.co.uk/booksfirstbuy
DR GEORGE LEWITH: WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE?
Could craniosacral therapy have helped Xan’s colic? Nicole Ragueneau, the craniosacral practitioner, provides a fascinating and plausible explanation as to how the therapy could have helped Xan, but there is no scientific evidence to back her claims.
What about Ragueneau’s claim to be able to adjust the cranial bones? Dr John Upledger, an American osteopath and physician, who was involved in the development of the craniosacral field in the 1970s, provides some evidence that the bones of the skull are not fused and may move even in adults. His work, however, has not been independently confirmed.
What about colic? The gut is connected to the nervous system and can be affected by stress, thus causing tension and spasm, so the soothing sensation of Ragueneau gentle contact on Xan’s stomach may have had an effect.
Dr George Lewith is head of the complementary medicine research unit, Southampton Medical School
What is it?
CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY Developed by an osteopath in the 1930s, craniosacral therapy claims to work with the subtle rhythmic motion that arises from the ebb and flow of the cerebrospinal fluid around the central nervous system. It is based on the principle that the body contains an intelligent life force which the fluid receives and conveys to all the body tissues, so that the body heals and regulates itself.
SUITABLE FOR babies with birth trauma, feeding difficulties, gastro-intestinal disorders, extensive crying, disturbed sleep, asthma, allergies and glue ear.
COST About £25 for a half-hour session.
CONTACT Craniosacral Therapy Association, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1 (07000 784735); www.craniosacral.co.uk, click on Find a Practitioner.
CONTACT Nicole Ragueneau, at the Body Conditioning Studio, 3A Ladbroke Road, London W11 (020-7736 9619), or the Fountain Clinic, 282 St Paul’s Road, London N1 (020-7704 6900).
