What’s the alternative to help unwell babies?
FROM colic to teething problems and reflux, many babies can face a raft of health complaints before they even reach their first birthday.
Stubborn coughs, colds, skin complaints, difficulties sleeping, list is long, leaving many parents of the 74,500 or so babies born in Ireland each year tearing their hair out.
While your GP is always the first port of call when dealing with an illness, there’s a growing range of natural support services to help keep your baby healthy and happy.
Teething difficulties and recurring infections are the most common reason parents bring their babies for homeopathic consultation, says homeopath Orla Broderick.
But Broderick sees babies for a range of complaints including eczema, colic, constipation, difficulties sleeping, fretfulness and agitation.
A consultation takes between 45 minutes and one hour.
“We talk to the mother about the conception, the pregnancy and the birth. I access the state the baby is in to understand the symptoms and we match that with a homeopathic remedy,” she says. “We treat the person not the disease.”
Many babies only need to attend once, but some with chronic complaints like asthma may need to attend more regularly, depending on the individual case.
Broderick says there has been lots of research done indicating the effectiveness of homeopathy in treating such conditions.
The costs involved are similar to attending the GP and most of the major health insurers allow some portion of the cost to be claimed back.
* www.homeopathyincork.com
Baby reflex is a gentle form of reflexology for babies, which involves fingertip and thumb pressure on specific points of babies’ feet. Practitioner at Macroom Holistic Therapy Centre, Marjorie Cullen uses reflexology to treat babies from four weeks up for conditions including digestive problems (such as colic and reflux) sleep difficulties and infections like colds and earaches.
“The foot is a mirror image of the body. Each part of the foot corresponds to a part of the body and you stimulate the appropriate part of the foot,” says Cullen.
Cullen sees babies for one treatment and shows the parent how to administer the technique on the baby.
“They can then administer the technique until they see an improvement,” she says.
She also runs classes to show parents how to do baby reflex.
Cullen says that Jenny Lee, a chartered physiotherapist and qualified reflexologist, who developed baby reflex, has carried out extensive research into the benefits of reflexology over many years.
A consultation costs €20 and is covered by all the major health insurers.
* Macroom Holistic Therapy Centre: 087-2887596
Craniosacral Therapy (CST) is a gentle, hands-on approach involving the release of tensions from the soft tissue of the body and eliminating restrictions to the cranial bones (in the head) and the sacrum (the triangular bone at the base of the spine). The practitioner applies light touches to a patient through clothing.
John Jennings of the Hayward Clinic, Bandon, Co Cork says parents bring their babies to him to treat three main complaints: colic, sleeplessness and incessant crying.
He says practitioners use touch to identify areas of restriction in the movement of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and can free that restriction up.
“It’s very gentle. Most babies will sleep through a lot of it.”
The majority of babies attend for up to three sessions.
Jennings says that Dr John Upledger, a professor of biomechanics, at Michigan State University, did a lot of research between 1975 and 1983 and published the clinical research, showing the effectiveness of CST.
One session of craniosacral therapy costs approximately €70 and lasts up to an hour. Some health insurers cover it and others don’t.
* www.craniosacraltherapy.ie
The thought of putting needles in their baby might not appeal to every parent, but at Melt Natural Healing Centre in Temple Bar, Dublin 2, between 16 and 20 babies are treated each week using acupuncture.
Proprietor and acupuncture practitioner Michelle Magill says acupuncture is very good for treating a long list of complaints including eczema, cirrhosis, colic and nightmares, as well as colds and ear infections.
Acupuncturist Liu Bing, known as Nina, mainly treats children under 12 months, while Michelle mostly treats those over one year old.
The first session includes a discussion about the baby’s diet, as well as examining the baby’s tongue and taking their pulse to make a diagnosis.
Before beginning they do a type of infant massage on the baby to build up trust.
The type of acupuncture used is called swift needling, a gentle form of acupuncture using one needle at a time, which is quickly removed.
“The needling is done gently. The parent us there all the time,” says Magill who stresses the needles are not left in babies, as they are with adults.
The sessions last on average 20 minutes and cost €20 and the number of sessions needed depends on the case.
She said there has been a lot of research into the benefits of acupuncture on babies in China, where it is very popular.
Some health insurers cover it others don’t.
* www.meltonline.com
