My son is 34 months and is non verbal. He only screams and laughs. We started seeing a massage therapist in November. My son has received 5 treatments that last 75 minutes. My son is not diagnosed as autistic or even on the spectrum yet. The DP at 25 months wanted to do the wait and see approach. Such a mistake on my part and now we can't get it and by the time we get a diagnosis soo much time will have gone by.

Any way my son is definitely developmentally delayed. He has a 16 month old sister who is surpassing him in all the milestones.

Away, since this massage treatment we have seen improvement in my son. He had shown some improvement with gross motor skills and social skills. After our last appointment last week he is actually starting to babble a couple sounds....not as much as a 3 month would, but it isn't a scream or laugh.

However, at the same time his tantrums have gotten worse. My DH and I believe that this treatment is helping, but I was wondering if there was someone else out there who has tried it that I can speak with.

Thanks

Hello,
My sons are starting this therapy next week. I'm glad to hear that it is working on your child!

How did you hear about it and why are your son's having it done. My DH and I were referred by our naturopath. It is great for children with ear infections, delayed development and has been used on children with PDD for decades according to what we have read. We when were feeling out our new patient papers we noticed that it is good for pain management and all sorts of things.

We know it is not a miracle cure, but we are not doing anything different at home and we have seen progress. AFter the first two sessions my son starting hugging a stuffy. He has never slept with covers and has never had a close relationship with anyone or thing.

It's so hard to know if you are doing the right thing for the right reasons. I don't think it will harm him. THe osteopath says that is a lot more energy in his head and things are flowing better, but there is more work to be done. It is hard to have the leap of blind faith that we are not just burning our money. Everything we have told makes sense. I guess I just want to see what other people's experience has been and how they made the decision to do this.

thanks boys...good luck, I hope it all works well for your boys.

Hi,
In doing searches for Autism treatment online I kept seeing craniosacral therapy come up. I've read whatever I can find about it and decided it was worth a try. Nobody in particular recommended it to me. We are on a long waiting list for intensive in-home therapy that I thought was supposed to start in february. We just found out that there have been some delays and the that the in-home therapy probably won't start until May. I am sooo tired of waiting and decided we are going to start trying everything we can-music therapy, animal therapy, DAN doctors, special diets-heck, I'm even considering Hyperbaric Oxygen treatments. My boys are on Medicaid and the person doing the craniosacral therapy also does physical and occupational therapy and says they can bill medicaid for it. I feel like we have nothing to lose, but a lot to possibly gain. I hope we see good results like you have!

Hi CantDoItAgain

Just wanted to give you some anecdotal stuff - my little boy has been seeing a cranial osteopath for around eight months with the most incredible results. When he first went back in May, he checked 26 symptoms on a list of 'possible autistic indicators'. That number's now down to around 7, with the bulk of those being around his speech and understanding, which is still his main area of difficulty.

It's difficult for me to be specific about his improvements as he's never had a decent assessment in the UK so I can't define how far he's progressed in those terms, but to try and talk like a mum (!), I used to be so scared that he'd never get out of the little world he was in, never make friends and never have a 'real' life. He's still a long way behind his peers, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel now - he's learning things without needing to be 'taught' them if that makes any sense.

He hasn't had tantrums after treatments so I can't be much help there I'm afraid, although perhaps if he's frustrated that's a good sign that he's understanding there are things he wants to do but can't? I'd have a chat to the therapist about it and see what they think.

Good luck with it. It's working wonders for my boy - we've been using homeopathy as well and that's having equally good effects.

Take care

Janine

Thanks for the info boys. I hope all works well for your boys. Let us know. How old are they if you don't mind me asking?

My boy is 34 months. We started this journey at 9 months and silly me thought perhaps he would be saying mom before he was two. Things have changed a lot for me in the last 25 months and my boy has taught me lots about unconditional love and patience. Plenty of patience and really celebrating his progresses. I have 3 typical developing children and now I cherish each and every stage. I guess life has lessons for everyone.

Picali, I have read your posts and it is encouraging to hear that someone else is doing what we are doing and have such positive results. Thanks for the words of encouragement. Some days we parents need them. Especially on days when it is hard to take the positives to sleep at night. The tantrums are getting really bad but we go next Wed to the osteopath. I am hoping that this next visit will help him.

We saw an audiologist this week. My son had tubes put in at 16 months because he had fluid in his ears and his hearing had been affected. He has fluid build up again and after a one minute visit we were told he needs tubes and his adnoids taken out. We saw our homeopath and are holding off on the surgery. He hasn't had any ear infections and in Dec his hearing tested perfect. So here is hoping that both natural means of doing things helps with the fluid.

On a very positive note our boy grabbed my DH's hand today and took him into the bathroom and put his arms up to be picked up. Dh put him on the toilet and voila....poopies. What a good boy. Maybe this is the start of great things to come.

Again thank you for your replies. Your support is very appreciated.

Laura

We had our first visit with the craniosacral therapist last Friday. I think it went really well. I was afraid that my twins, who are 3 years old, would not cooperate with the therapy, but once again they surprised me. Not only were they willing to have it done, they seemed to like it. One twin, Blake, who has no words that he speaks regularly, said "mama" and looked right at me during his session. He hasn't said that since he was about a year old. Words can't describe how I felt. Both of my boys had HUGE smiles on their faces during the treatment and afterward. In the few days since the treatment, which was a combination of physical therapy and craniosacral, they have both been babbling more, interacting more and we have seen more of their personalities than ever before. Basically, more of a "spark". Needless to say, we are going back weekly for visits. Karen

Karen,
That is fantastic. :bouncing:
Keep us updated on how your boys are doing. There are just a little older than my son. He will be three in just over a month.

Your visit sounds so encouraging. We have a visit tomorrow and are also going to ask about our son's ears. He has fluid in them again and we would like to advoid the operation. The last time he got tubes put in he got sick and did not progress any for months.

Thanks for sharing. I hope it all continues to go well for your boys and you.

Laura

We did one treatment with my grandson, and he cried through it because he was tired and wasn't into being touched at the time. I believe very much in the promise of the treatment, and am working on trying to get him hooked up with someone closer to home. The doc who did it before is not in practice at this point in time, and lives 3 hours away. He was also a homeopathist, and I felt that was a good combination. The woman I am looking into now is just a massage therapist, but she is good! Keep us posted on how it goes, and I'll let you know if we get Drake into it again.

Congratulations to everyone on your successes with your children!

The book The Natural Medicine Guide To Autism has a chapter on the success of using cranial osteopathy.

Sounds fascinating! I would be very interested in reading it.

I love it! It has chapters on Targeted Therapeutic Nutrition, NAET: Allergy Related Autism, Biochemical Therapy (we're doing this), Homeopathy, Cranial Osteopathy, The Tomatis Method (outlined in the book I just got called Awakening Ashley , and others. I highly recommend it!