Case Report: Baby Can’t Sleep

By Paul Doney - Chiropractor | Craniosacral Therapy & Myofascial Release

Charlie was a 4 month old baby who presented with a history of being unable to settle. He would wake up to 7 times a night (though in the past week it had been twice a night). During the day he would sleep for no more than 40 minutes at a time. Day or night, when he woke he would cry. He was a generally “grumpy” baby. His parents were understandably concerned about him.

Charlie had had a difficult start to life. He had a forceps delivery after being turned 180 degrees in the womb. He was left with a bruised and cone-shaped head. X-rays of his head showed no serious abnormality such as fusion of a joint between the bones of the skull (craniosynostosis). Charlie also had a torticolis (the inability to turn the neck through its full range of motion due to muscle spasm, also known as a wry neck). Physiotherapy provided through the hospital had relieved the torticolis and his head shape had settled back toward normal.

When I examined him I found that Charlie’s head shape was a parallelogram (non-synostotic plagiocephaly) and that he still had a subtle torticolis. His mother observed that he always slept with his head turned to the right (the side on which his head was flattened at the rear).

I treated Charlie with Craniosacral Therapy, a very gentle technique which uses light touch to balance strain patterns within the skull and spinal column. The most important release was for a shearing strain pattern through the joint between the sphenoid and occipital bones. This joint forms a key fulcrum for movement in the bones of the skull. I warned Charlie’s parents that he would probably be thirsty, he might sleep for very long periods, and that he might be especially grumpy the following day. To reduce the grumpiness they needed to give Charlie extra fluids for the next 48 hours.

When Charlie returned the following week his parent’s reported that he had experienced all of the reactions I had predicted. He had slept for 8 hours the night of the treatment and ten hours the following night. He had slept 8 hours each night since and was sleeping with his head turned to the left for the first time. Charlie was no longer grumpy and had indeed started laughing for the first time.

Although this sounds wonderful there was still a lot of work to do. Charlie was still only sleeping for 40 minutes at a time during the day and crying excessively. His mother had also observed that he was chewing a lot. It is common for babies with parellogramed heads to have problems with the jaw joints (temporomandibular joints or TMJ). It took a further 4 treatments before Charlie was much more comfortable with himself – sleeping normally during the day, and not crying or chewing excessively.

This is an example of an excellent response to treatment. Not only has the baby benefited but enormous strain and worry has been removed from his parents. No one wants a child to suffer unnecessarily.