J'Nel Metherell IBCLC CST
Lactation Consultant & Craniosacral Therapist

Jadzia had a rough start. She was delivered with forceps and soon after birth began presenting with open skin rashes. Her parents felt these things had Jadzia in extreme discomfort. She was diagnosed with CMPA and put on hypoallergenic formula milk. I met Jadzia at 3 months of age. She’d recovered from her rashes, but was still in extreme discomfort.

Jadzia cried about 75% of the time, and always such a pained cry. She didn’t like being held, but she also didn’t like laying flat. She spent a lot of time reclined in a bouncer and when she needed to go to sleep her parents would have to bounce the bouncer, while she cried, until she fell asleep.

On our first meeting I could feel how locked up she was through most of her spine and cranial bones, all stemming from her upper back. I did a bit of craniosacral therapy, but felt I was barely scratching the surface, so we planned a few sessions in for the next month to try and maximise the impact and benefit to Jadzia.

At her first appointment we opened up movement in her head and released a bit of restriction though her spine and out through her right arm. She cried most of the session, in arms, but over the following week she cried less. Her parents said she went in her pram for the first time without crying and fell asleep in it on a walk, no crying!

At her next appointment I noticed her back was much more relaxed and mobile than before, this time we worked on her spine out to her left arm and into her cranial bones, where she had significant shifts and I could feel an immediate improvement in the movement there. We had a couple more sessions and after each, her parents reported she was crying less and less and settling easier and easier.

On her fourth appointment Jadzia spent the whole 45 minutes calmly laying flat while having her treatment. Her dad said this was now unsuprising because she had now chilled so much. Her parents reported that she was much happier in herself, was able to regularly lay flat and was beginning to smile and babble like a baby. Nap times were no longer a stress and they were beginning to see Jadzia’s personality come through and could enjoy her more now that the crying had settled.