Why Massage for Feeding Disorders?

Wait a second, my kid has a serious problem, you are going to fix it with massage??? 

YES. My observation is that after medical issues are addressed, the two biggest issues is feeding disorders are stress and pain. Massage addresses both of those.

I have been interested in body work my whole career. I was fortunate to travel internationally extensively as a young adult. I always visited health clinics, special needs schools and traditional medicine practitioners on my travels. I was fascinated with the fact that all traditional cultures have versions of baby/child massage as medical treatment–they didn’t have much else to work with. But what was more interesting were the results! I met Westerns who migrated from their home country specifically to get traditional treatments, most of the time these treatments were based on massage or some body work. I met one woman that moved to Indonesian so her daughter with Downs Syndrome could be massaged everyday. WOW! The results were fantastic. The daughter had great muscle tone, her motor skills and language skills were better than I had ever seen in my pediatric practice in the USA.

I trained as a baby massage instructor and over the years did extensive training in massage and other hands-on therapies. I am now a teaching assistant for the Upledger Institute International. Finally I trained as an Acupuncturist. Being an Acupuncturist is a bit of a misnomer, because the medicine developed centuries before metal was extracted from the earth to make needles and needles are only a small part of a huge body of knowledge. It started as a massage technique. Especially for children, “acupuncture” is still based on massage. 

As I employed these skills in my work, I noticed that focusing on bodywork, I would get significantly better outcomes in all developmental areas for my clients with delayed milestones. These principles became the basis of my practice in general, but also for feeding issues specifically. 

Most of my clients have had a LOT of treatment prior to starting with me. Consistently I see them improving with safe, easy to implement massage  and acupressure techniques. 

Not using massage in therapy for children is an oversight in the healthcare system in my observation.

For online child massage courses, please visit the Courses page at Goodbeginningswellness.com

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