Jamie. Story of a 6-week old baby

Some people come with their baby for an assessment to make sure their baby is healthy.

Six week old Jamie arrived with his mom suffering from stomach aches that were keeping him up at nights, as well as constipation and prolonged hiccups.

After the first session his diaper exploded. His mom felt embarrassed, but it made me happy to see the results so quickly. Especially because I had a 2 hour window to refresh the room.

As step 1, I asked his mom about the birth process while assessing his general health. Jamie couldn't lie still and tended to turn his head to the right. I felt tightness in his neck that was probably a result of a challenging delivery process like many babies who go through forceps delivery (which is not uncommon today). Forceps delivery tends to strain the neck and be quite traumatic to the baby.

Jamie had good energy levels, was alert, curious and communicated well. I then gently felt the movement in his spine and hips, from the lower back into the neck and head, identifying constrictions in the areas that were affecting blood supply to the stomach and intestines. That could explain his difficulties with bowel movement.

Over the first 2 weeks Jamie's digestion improved dramatically and he was sleeping and holding his neck better. However, the biggest challenge was his hiccups.

Strong, uncontrolled and lasting for hours, every time he ate. Unfortunately, they also started a few times while I was treating him.

In his case, I believe the hiccups were caused due to tightness and tension in the diaphragm. This is a big muscle located under the ribs and is attached to the spine in the lower back. The diaphragm gets its nerve supply from the phrenic nerve that originates in the middle of the neck, an area that was constricted in little Jamie.

The diaphragm takes a crucial part in the breathing and digestion processes by pushing on the lungs, intestines and stomach. The compression of the nerve supply meant that the muscle is vulnerable and could start spasming uncontrollably with added tension. This in turn would result in hiccups every time Jamie ate.

I had to alternate between stretching the diaphragm and the neck muscles, gently articulating and tractioning the neck and inhibiting the muscle reaction every few minutes when the hiccups started.

As the muscles relaxed and reduced the compression on the nerves, symptoms decreased with every week: instead of a few hours of hiccups every time Jamie ate, they went down to a few minutes once every few days.

Jamie would get very sleepy during the sessions, or fall asleep on the way home. His night sleep significantly improved, based on comments from Jamie's mom.

I saw him 6 times with a week in between sessions and I had to say goodbye when I moved from London to Edinburgh.

Pleased to say he was doing great, improving and growing every week. I am confident he is a healthy baby and should not suffer anymore from the stress of the birth process.

This picture was taken when we had our last session with Jamie. He was 3 months old and was doing very well.

Osteopathic treatment for babies