So Jax had his first experience with alternative healing methods a couple of days ago…and I know what you’re thinking: SWEET! Way to totally perpetuate the California/Bay Area stereotype of the crazy, hippy-dippy New Age parent.
Was it crystal therapy, chakra balancing, Rebirthing, Reiki or a crazed body worker who set up shop in my parents’ house, you ask? What about the life pod, did you send him to the Sedona life pod??
Why no, but thank you just the same for inquiring…
It was cranial sacral therapy, actually. And compared to most of the stuff I’ve experienced (see above healing modes plus various Russian hands-on healers, psychic surgeons, herbal remedies, magnets and waaaaaaay too many other crazy things to mention), cranial sacral therapy isn’t really that ALTERNATIVE at all!
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but Jackson has a flat head. Not flat like FLAT, like some weird cartoon character or something. Not like he has a poker chip perched on the top of his neck. But the back right quadrant of his head is pretty flat, like he has a big dent in his head.
"We can call him Dent-in-the-Head," my Mother helpfully suggested when I pointed it out to her.
Perhaps he was positioned oddly in utero or perhaps he just favors that side for no reason in particular, but he always sleeps with his head slightly cocked to the right, and when he’s in the swing or the car seat, he does the same thing.
At his two month appointment I discussed it with his pediatrician and she suggested we start with repositioning. That turned out to be easier said than done. So at four months, with a still pretty pronounced slope, I decided to take him in again and see what she thought.
She’s a pretty holistic doctor, so she wanted us to try cranial sacral therapy and possibly chiropractic as well. So off we went to his first appointment and I have to say, he LOVED it.
He loved the shit out of that session.
The therapist had him lie on his back on a massage table and just very gently placed her hands behind his back. She barely made any movements, so whatever she was doing it was very gentle.
Jackson just kept staring right into her eyes and smiling and making all these cooing sounds. "Uh, huh, hmmmm…tell me all about it…" she kept saying to him and to my utter surprise, he would ‘answer’ her with these little murmurs. He does not normally do this, by the way.
Parker is way more verbal, she’ll just chatter away (about what? Oh you know, just normal baby talk stuff like the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the recent demonstrations here to get China out of Tibet and why, for a delicate little flower of a girl, she cuts the loudest farts in the history of mankind…just the YOOOGE), but Jackson rarely chirps on and on like he was doing.
"What’s he saying?" I asked, hoping to get some dramatic insight into my young son’s psyche like why he won’t frigging sleep beyond 3 AM without one of us shoving the paci in his gaping maw or why he loves me soooo much more than Daddy. (Just kidding.)
"Oh, he’s just chatting," she said vaguely, as if protecting the ‘doctor’ – patient confidentiality clause. Which sort of annoyed me but whatever.
Then she had me hold him and she worked on his head, and by God within about three seconds he was sound asleep. It was pretty crazy. And then? On the way home in the car seat he held his flat head TOTALLY STRAIGHT for the first time EVER!
Since then he’s reverted a little back to his old tricks, often turning his head back to the right even after we reposition him or make sure the toy is hanging from the play mat to his left or shoving a cloth diaper under one side of the swing’s head rest to force him to keep it straight.
But I’ll take him back next week and I’m hoping after a few sessions it gets better.
Either that or he shows an amazing talent for growing REALLY thick hair.
SO WHAT? I have a flat head. What’s so bunny about THAT?!?
OH MY. My brother had to wear this outfit to cover up his sloping head issue — I just wore it because it’s so damn cute. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I say just keep him in the bunny suit. It’s perfect for the first day of school. 🙂
If it makes you feel better, I just read about cranial sacral therapy in my developmental psych class. I don’t think it’s that alternative anymore.
And how cute are they in those bunny suits?!? :))
I was sooooo ready for a crazy mom story!
The pics are so cute!
Oh, how cute!! It’s interesting about the cranial sacral therapy. I hope it helps the little guy, not least because your mother’s choice of nicknames is quite infelicitous…
Dear Watson-
I am a lurker who has occasionally read your blog.(I was on stirrup and clicked away and away etc)
I am also a peds physical therapist. Cranial Sacral therapy is great! It can really do wonders to realign the bones of the skull and treat the insides of the body!
But it sounds like Little Jackson has torticollis. They should also be showing you stretching to perform on him at home daily, to stretch out his neck muscles, (b/c they do get tight in utero) Any pediatric Phyiscal or Occupation Therapist would be able to show you. He could be entitled to early intervention services for PT/OT b/c of that. It’s actually more common than people realize…and increasing in its frequency b/c we are all forbidden to put our children on their tummies to sleep.
I hope you don’t mind this unsolicited advice….but I just like to make sure people know about this and address it. I have a parent who’s poor baby’s head is soooo flat and they think it’s funny when I tell them their daughter needs a helmet and they do nothing to stretch her or reposition her. 🙁
Good Luck!
Oh, aren’t they just the cutest???
Hailey has a flat spot too, although never enough to need to do therapy or a helmet or anything like that. She had full range of motion, so it wasn’t tort like a previous poster mentioned. Since he’s so young, this will get worked out very quickly.
Enjoy your little bundles, they are super beautiful!
holy crap! I researched the sh*t out of the stuff and couldn’t find anyone that I “knew” that had tried cranial sacral therapy. Sweet! My baby boy (7 months old now) has the same back-right-quadrant-flat-head thing going on. I mentioned cranial sacral therapy to my pediatrician and she looked utterly spoked. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one in our network. WHERE AND HOW THE HECK DID YOU FIND YOURS??
* We decided against the helmet – even though it was recommended by Cranial Technologies (I think they’re biased, how ’bout you?) 🙂 His head is getting better … somewhat. But it sure would be nice to try cranial therapy. On the other hand, he doesn’t have tight neck muscles and doesn’t appear to favor that side. It just remained sloped from birth. Hmmmm. Anywho, do share how you found your doc.
Your kids are just so damn cute:-)
CUTE!! They just keep getting sweeter, Watson!
You know, we have a cousin whose kid wouldn’t roll and wouldn’t roll. They took him to the chiro and he had an adjustment and BOOM, the next day he rolled. He was like 6 months old. It was nuts.
Hope the new doc works!!
omg, they are soooo cute, I love the outfits. Love em, love em.
I worry about Gio’s head since he is always looking off to the right..like there is something WONDERFUL over there. The dr’s haven’t said anything about it yet, but if it keeps up at the 4 month appt I will be asking about it.
love hearing your story, you can still make me laugh you HOT MAMA!
wow, does those guys make house calls?
and very glad now to have a spelling for YOOOOGE.