Babies and Children
The Treatment
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As most children, particularly toddlers, don't like being touched especially by a stranger, I have developed a method whereby I connect to the child's system and work on them hands-off. Sitting quietly, I will work on their issues while they play with their mum and dad. Very rarely do I feel the need to shift something that's really stuck by giving them hands-on work.
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Please be aware before starting treatments, that CST is not a one-off magic silver bullet, but like any other deep healing, requires the parents to make the time and make the commitment to see the treatment through. You may see improvements after just one or two sessions, but it is still a work-in -progress, As a rule of thumb, most children will require around 4 sessions to get optimal results.
Babies' Experiences
In the past, people didn't realise that babies are aware, sensitive, or perceptive little beings. They generally saw them as small, not very intelligent objects and treated them as such. But the truth is they're very sensitive, and they know more than you think - and furthermore, they really want to interact.
Experiences in the womb, at birth and in early childhood profoundly affect a child's long-term physical, emotional, and mental health and well-being. These unconscious patterns can affect us in our early development and well into adulthood.
Any traumatic event occurring from conception through pregnancy, birth and childhood can limit children from achieving their full potential and from developing into secure well-rounded adults, able to form meaningful relationships.
Birth Trauma
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Babies experience massive pressures and tight dragging forces during birth. These compressive forces and stress patterns become held in the connective tissues of the body, mostly on the cranium, neck, and spine and become very deeply held, and many infants find it difficult to release them after birth.
Most babies will have tension in their upper neck, where it meets the cranium (the sub-occiput). This is because this is the most flexible part of the spine, and so most likely to become distended under the extreme pressure of birth. The sub-occiput is a very delicate area, but also contains a lot of vital veins, arteries, and nerve pathways, Also the Eustachian tubes from the middle ear pass through here, and if they become impinged and blocked, the fluids cannot flow from the middle ear, resulting ear infections, and may eventually necessitate grommets.
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As contractions push the baby over the mother's internal lumber spine, one shoulder and neck may become more contracted, which may lead to difficulties when turning to one breast during breastfeeding.
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In order to pass through the birth canal, the foetus' skull distorts, and although the neonate skull has the capacity to remould after birth the stronger compressive forces remain held in the tissues. Thes babies will experience headaches, as though they are wearing a helmet that's too tight around their head.
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Very fast births may result in a sense of shock in the system and tension at the top of the head, whereas, very slow, stalled, and difficult births will incur a variety of different physical tensions, as well as a sense of panic and shallow breathing.
Tongue-tie will exert strain on the jaw - from before birth whilst in utero and will require releasing even after the tongue-tie has been cut, if left. untreated, this tension can have long lasting effects on the alignment of the mandible and tension on the TMJ joint.
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Even C-section babies don't have an easy time of it. They will typically experience a change in atmospheric pressure from inside to outside the womb. And this may then create a contraction in the tissues (like they've been sucked-in) which the infant cannot easily release.
Memory Crying
BBL is often accompanied with memory crying. This is different to present-moment need to cry. Present-moment issues are needs that require attending to, such as discomfort from hunger, thirst, heat or cold, boredom, tiredness, or a soiled nappy. These are issues that people are familiar with and can easily attend to them.
Memory crying is when the memory of an earlier traumatic event surfaces.. In babies this is experienced as present moment lived experience, which can be seen in the eyes and heard in the tone of the crying. This is exacerbated when they are tired and less distracted by interesting objects around them, and so become more aware of their internal body state.
Parents are not aware that this is not present=moment crying and try to soothe baby - but nothing works.
This can lead to loss of confidence, increased stress and frustration and exhaustion due to lack of sleep, and tension between the parents.
CST and your Baby
Our connective tissues adapt to stress and hold the memory of any intense or traumatic experience. This emotional and physical pain is tolerable for only so long, but if there is no relief from suffering it can lead to resignation and dissociation.
Through connecting to the system either with or without physical contact, gentle stimulation of these tight sections and pathways, CST can elicit physical and emotional release. It is within this process of healing that the baby's nervous can system shift from being in survival and alert, into a 'settling', thus allowing the baby's system to begin to repair.
As well as relieving symptoms, CST can support a deeper contact and bonding between babies and their parents, and can engender greater communication skills, self-confidence, and empathy within the family.