Mums, babies and children
Work with mum’s and babies began at the Osteopath Clapham following completion of Julieann’s postgraduate studies in paediatric osteopathy and women’s health. For mum’s this takes the form of treatment for the various aches and pains associated with pregnancy or post-partum support, including rehabilitation and work on caesarean section scar tissue. For babies, Julieann’s work includes expert, primary care-level, new born check-ups and cranial osteopathy for children, from infants to toddlers to teenagers. A specialism is infant feeding and tongue tie, as well as neurodevelopment.
Breastfeeding and tongue tie
For a supposedly natural process, breast feeding can sometimes be frustratingly problematic, especially if a tongue tie is present. At the Osteopath Clapham Julieann works in close collaboration with local lactation consultants, midwives and tongue tie specialists to find non-interventional solutions to all lactation issues. However, if in the case of a tongue tie, a frenulotomy (tongue tie division) is required, Julieann is also on hand to help with the residual structural changes that need to take place. For more information have a read of Julieann’s blogs, “What is a tongue tie” and “When is a tongue tie not a tongue tie?”
Neurodevelopment
Another area of particular interest is that of neurodevelopment. This is the way in which, through the proliferation of neurological pathways, the body and brain grow together. When we are very small it is our movement that drives our neurodevelopment. I move my head. I see my hand. I start to develop hand-eye co-ordination, tracking and near vision. The former is in the body, the latter in the brain. The connection is the neurological pathway. But what happens if head rotation is restricted? Answer, the movement pattern is restricted and the resultant neurological pathway is not the same. The brain of a child who has been hampered in their movement is, quite literally, different from that of a child who has not. It is these differences that often show up later in life as learning or behavioural difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, ADD, Autism or Asperger’s. Having worked with older children in the area of neurological rehabilitation, Julieann is very well placed to help children with developmental needs using cranial osteopathy. For more information please see Julieann’s blog “Neurodevelopmental rehabilitation”.