babies, infants, children and adolescents
Paediatric Care
Osteopathy is a gentle therapy
that can be utilised by all ages.
Osteopaths care for babies, infants, children, adolescents, and their families to support healthy growth and development.’
Caring for children
is a privilege and requires a unique body of knowledge.
Osteopaths who care for children have in depth knowledge of:
- Paediatric clinical presentations, and assessment and screening protocols
- Physical growth and developmental milestones
- Screening for general health and wellbeing issues that affect children and young people
- Age appropriate manual therapy interventions
- Broader health interventions for children and young people outside of manual therapy
- Paediatric referral pathways
It is easier to raise a healthy child, than to restore a broken adult.
Consultations
Consultations commence
With a review of a child’s health history and present health concerns. For babies and infants this includes an obstetric and birth history. The osteopath will also discuss and establish the goals of a child and/or family in order to provide tailored therapeutic care.
In addition,
paediatric consultations may include the following clinical components.
- Discussion of physical developmental milestones
- Musculoskeletal and movement screening to assess for any impediments to developmental milestones
- Consideration of biological, social and psychological factors that contribute to a healthy lifestyle for a child.
- Discussion of age or developmentally appropriate osteopathic treatments available
- Determination of an appropriate child health referral pathway, as required
When caring for children,
Osteopaths use a combination of approaches.
- Health education
- Age appropriate exercises
- Home based management strategies
- Hands on manual therapy
Osteopathic management of paediatric clients may occur in isolation, or in conjunction with other medical and allied health professionals including GPs, occupational therapists, speech pathologists and child health nurses.
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