I often see cranial-sacral therapy (or chiropractic) suggested as a last-ditch effort when babies are clamping, using their tongues incorrectly, etc. Sometimes we can get these babies to nurse w/o CST, but so often what I see is the development of compensatory behaviours that cause me to wonder what the long-term implications are for these babies. For example, I have seen babies overdevelop certain muscles, so as to be able to "suck" well enough to eat, while never developing other muscles meant for suckling. What might happen to the milk supply later on with these moms? I have seen babies with apparently short tongues, who simply have tight muscles restricting the hyoid, or babies with "high palates", where mom would need to really concentrate on getting more breast in the baby's mouth the fill the space, when in fact the high palate is not genetic, but a structural response to birth trauma. In my opinion, CST is not something to try when all else fails--it is so effective that it should be considered early on, especially considering that so few babies today escape birth trauma--(interestingly enough, every single baby I saw in the past 2 weeks was induced at 37 weeks--holidays coming up, maybe)? Personally, I'd rather stop the birth brutality, but when it occurs, I'd love to see every single baby have the opportunity to release that trauma through CST.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA