Treating Babies Seated

The video below shows seated treatment - but why do this don't babies spend all their time lying down anyway?

Adult patients love to lie down when they come in for treatment, and why not it's an opportunity to let go, unwind and release. Now babies are different, yes they will lie down for you, obviously they have to if you put them in that position, but some of them aren't keen on it and some of them downright hate it. 

I've treated lots of babies that are very tender in the spinal region, usually from the effects of birth, all that twisting and contractions not to mention any intervention that was needed from the obstetrician. So for them lying on their back is actually painful, you can confirm this by pressing lightly on each spinal vertebrae, watch babies face closely you'll see which ones are tender and if very tender baby will tell you loudly!

Now some babies are just sticky beaks, and this is more common as baby gets a bit older, for them lying down is too passive and frankly, it's too boring ! They want to be up seated so they can be part of the action. Now let's contrast that with the adult, the adult wants to lie down to reduce nervous system stimuli, and the sticky beak baby wants to sit up to increase it, wow now that's a judgement on what society does to us - can we all be babies again and have another go at not letting society and life fry our nervous systems!

But what about those babies who are really unsettled and have over-stimulated nervous systems from pain and distress, well seated is definitely a great way to calm them. This time, the seated position allows us to use distraction to help settle them, not only do you have the visual distraction but a quick bouncing rhythm on your knee can help crowd out whatever is distressing them.