An 8-week-old baby is admitted with bronchiolitis. His parents mention that he has always cried a lot and that he is having a course of cranio-sacral therapy to try and improve things. You wonder whether there is any evidence for this.

STRUCTURED CLINICAL QUESTION

In an 8-week-old baby with frequent crying [patient], does cranio-sacral therapy [intervention] result in reduced crying [outcome]?

SEARCH STRATEGY AND OUTCOME

Secondary sources

No articles were found.

Primary sources

Medline, Cinahl, AMED, BNID and TRIP databases were searched using “cranio-sacral therapy” and “osteopathic medicine” and “infant” and “children”. Over 2000 article abstracts were scanned resulting in eight individual articles. There was one controlled trial. See table 1.

COMMENTARY

We could only find one controlled trial investigating cranio-sacral therapy in crying babies. Despite this apparent lack of evidence, it is a therapy which is which known about and used by parents of young babies. Anecdotally, parents in clinic tell us it is something they turn to in desperation, and there are many articles in the lay press which suggest it as a possible solution for sleepless nights.

Cranio-sacral therapists believe that birth trauma can underlie many common childhood conditions ranging from minor ailments such as glue ear to more severe problems such as cerebral palsy, autism and epilepsy. …