Cranial Osteopath in London recommend

[moonprayer]

Hi, could anyone recommend a good Cranial Osteopath in London? I want to try on my 5.5mo DS. He had a difficult birth and hasn't settled yet. He has been quite windy since birth. Now his little tummy seems to be full of trapped wind and his poop is always explosive (sorry for the details). I've tried gripe water, colief... neither seemed to work... If this still doesn't work, I would probably go to a doctor to have a proper food intolerance/allergic test... :( poor little one... he's been always a cute lovely boy, so I feel even more guilty for him as all his discomfort seems to be my fault...

[EasterHoliday]

the team at Viveka in St Johns Wood (Queens Terrace) are brilliant, and they'll treat you at the same time. there's a full paediatric team as back up for any medical issues and they do all the intolerance testing too.

[Carolra]

We took our dd to a cranial osteopath in Twickenham (Maple Leaf Clinic)... is there a more specific area in London you'd like? It would be easier to take your ds somewhere local...

[moonprayer]

Thank you both for the replies. We live in South Woodford, north east of London, but I don't mind a bit of travelling to get to a good one.

[amazingmumof6]

I will PM you the details of my hero of an osteopath in a minute.
just call him, if he is too far for you to travel he might be able to recommend someone nearer to you.

[sarahandemily]

You could try the osteopathic centre for children in Wandsworth - occ.co.uk - I think. It's a charity where experienced osteopaths work and train others. You don't pay but donate what you can afford. The centre is a lovely environment for kids. The actual treatment didn't work with us and I'm not at all sure about the whole thing but then again there wasn't really anything wrong with my dd I was just hoping it would make her sleep. I know other people who had success there and at least you don't lose a load of cash if it doesn't work

[austenozzy]

Go to a real doctor, like you say in the OP. Osteopathy is nonsense, and cranial osteopathy on a baby is dangerous nonsense. There is no plausible mechanism for how it works and so far there is insufficient evidence that it does. Not a cat in hell's chance I'd let a charlatan loose on my child.

www.badscience.net/2004/09/cranial-osteopathy/

Even the chiro people say it's dangerous nonsense, which must say something!
www.chiromt.com/content/14/1/10
"Until outcome studies show that these techniques produce a direct and positive clinical effect, they should be dropped from all academic curricula; insurance companies should stop paying for them; and patients should invest their time, money, and health elsewhere."

[amazingmumof6]

austen

well ours did help us with various issues over the last 15 years and was worth every penny.
not a charlatan, but an incredibly knowledgeable guy who figures out what the problem is and sorts it -way more capable then your general "take 2 paracetamols and put your feet up" GP advice

but I'm guessing you know better.

and FYI the only real difference between an osteopath and a chiropractor is the spelling - I doubt they would discredit themselves, so I have to at your comment!

[austenozzy]

"the only real difference between an osteopath and a chiropractor is the spelling" - we agree there, they're both wholly implausible nonsense, so they are the same. I'm no medic but I do have a fully-functioning BS radar.

OP, if you think your child has actual underlying medical issues, please don't let visits to expensive woo charlatans delay real medical advice.

[amazingmumof6]

that is incredibly insulting, unfair and untrue.

like any other profession there bound to be some people who are rubbish at their jobs, but as they have to get their license renewed every year these people will be vetted out.
and word of mouth works both ways!

but I'm glad you never had any problems that could not be sorted by the GP.

we have and thankfully we had the right person to help us.

I need no research - the osthepathic treatments we received over the years always had a positive effect, there's no better research then witnessing pain go away and body restored to better functioning.

you are in no position to discredit what I say. I know what we've been going through.

my osteopath knows what he is doing and I highly recommend him to anyone.

[austenozzy]

Sorry you feel that I've insulted you (I didn't, and all the ad hominems have come from you), but nothing I've said is untrue or unfair. Osteo and Chiro are not based on anything remotely medically plausible and all proper tests on their efficacy have shown them to be no better than placebo, like that other plague, homeopathy.

Sounds like you need a better real doctor, tbh.

OP: More on craniosacral - even osteos say it's nonsense:
www.skepdic.com/craniosacral.html

[Sheshelob]

Stop trolling, Austen.

The OP didn't ask IF she should try cranial - she asked for recommendations.

[Sheshelob]

I have a fully functioning pushy dickhead radar, by the way.

[austenozzy]

Just realised you may have thought I was calling your posts BS - I wasn't, I was calling the woo treatments BS. Sorry if that caused confusion.

[austenozzy]

lol, funny! not trolling, trying to (a) help the op not waste money and (b) get real medical help for her young baby.

Just because I'm the only one talking sense on a thread doesn't make me a pushy dickhead!

[Sheshelob]

It is pushy and dickish to come onto a thread and repeatedly put info that hasn't been asked for.

I don't want to derail this any more than you already have.

Good luck, OP. The Maris Practice in Twickenham is brilliant.

[austenozzy]

Fair enough, point taken. What I was really trying to get across was that the OP shouldn't delay medical attention in order to pursue the alternative routes; that's where the 'no harm in it' argument fails, no matter how passionate you may be in osteo/chiro/whatever. No reason she shouldn't book up appointments at both.

I didn't mean to upset anyone, sorry if I did. Just trying to save the op a few bob and a lot of worry.

[austenozzy]

And I know a few pubs in Twickers that you can try afterwards! :-)

[valiumredhead]

I used to go to one in Hilly Fields in SE London, this was 5 years ago so might not be there now but I saw 2 people there and both were amazing. They also did a clinic for babies.

[Sheshelob]

Fair play, Austen.

[dev9aug]

This is just the thing we have been looking for as well. amazingmumof6, would you mind sending me a pm with the details of the osteopath you use. TIA.

[dev9aug]

moonprayer Have they ruled out reflux? At your ds age, ds2 was crying non stop as well. In the end I asked the paed to prescribe Omeprozale for reflux and he has been good as gold. Another thing we also did with consultation with the paed was go dairy free. That made a difference as well as it turned out he had a milk protein allergy which he did grow out of at around 14 months.

By all means, do try the osteopath as well, I am a big fan of cranial osteopathy as I have seen first hand the difference it made with ds1.

[Wingdingdong]

The cranial osteopath we took DD to is Aidan Spencer. He praticises and tutors at the OCC in Wandsworth but we saw him at the Sunflower Centre in Brockley. However, he also practises in Romford which may be easier for you.
www.colindovepractice.co.uk/romford-osteopaths/aidan-spencer

We took DD because we asked 'real medical help' (hospital) for advice when she was a day old, only to be told there wasn't a problem (bollocks there wasn't, the birth notes, which we only got when pregnant with DC2 and having to invoke data protection act, local MP, etc after the hospital refused to release them to the consultant obstetrician at DC2?s birth hospital, showed oxygen deprivation... And the problem that they denied!). Aidan correctly identified the issue, told us what he could help with but also diagnosed the problems that osteopathy wouldn't help and told us we'd need GP referral to physio immediately. He gave us some physio exercises to do and further advice, and wrote a note for the GP too, which she found helpful and accurate and acted upon immediately.

Unfortunately by the time that this happened and we got an appointment with 'real medical help', ie the physio, at the hospital, DD was 12w old, the physio said "why did you wait so long? Did you not notice something was seriously wrong? You have left it too late, your daughter will be deformed for life and it will be your fault, your negligence." I was crying so much I couldn't leave the car park to drive home for about 45 mins.

I called Aidan (the "charlatan", apparently ), he reassured me, saw us again immediately, gave me further exercises to do with DD in the meantime and suggested I use my NHS choice rights to ask the GP to transfer DD to physio at a different hospital, which he recommended and with whom he'd worked. This happened, DD had a year of physio, the new physios were brilliant and said that the exercises were spot-on, and that there was definitely hope and I hadn't fucked up DD's life.

All I can say is that if I'd gone with 'real medical help' at the hospital both those occasions, firstly there was no problem and secondly the problem was so big and identified so late that DD wouldn't be able to walk and there was nothing they could do. As it happened, we saw Aidan and DD now has no issues at all. I took DS to see him too, nothing major with him but reflux, tongue tie and feeding issues caused by those two things (muscle tightness, arching, etc) and again Aidan helped significantly and was honest about the extent to which he could manage symptoms but not the cause. The 'real medical help' (another hospital) we got for the tongue tie snip actually recommended cranial osteopathy (and coincidentally, Aidan in particular) immediately after the op but we'd already booked the session with him.

Go for it. Clearly Austenozzy has been lucky enough either to have DC with no problems, or to have access to excellent medical care with no waiting time, and therefore no need to even seek alternatives in the first instance. We probably ended up spending about £200 on DD's treatment. She can walk, has the use of her left arm and a straight spine, as well as a relatively symmetrical face - all things we were told by the first hospital physio were impossible for her. £200 well spent.

[Wingdingdong]

Ps just realised that the Sunflower Centre in Brockley must be the Hilly Fields, SE London one valiumredhead referred to - and the baby clinic she mentioned is the one run by Aidan Spencer. DS is now 15m, haven't been since he was 8m, but Aidan was definitely still there then, and he's been there for years.

[valiumredhead]

YY the sunshine clinic, that's the name of it!

[Gooseysgirl]

Bruce Dyson at Wanstead Dental and Health Centre 24 High St, Wanstead... not far from you in South Woodford! We took DD to him when she was 3 weeks old as she had mild colic. There was a definite improvement after treatment, she had 3 sessions altogether.