Due to their natural vitality, babies and children respond exceptionally well to gentle forms of treatment for most common childhood illnesses. Often small changes in diet combined with short term nutritional, herbal or homeopathic assistance is all that is required for them to return to health.

Naturopathy, herbal medicine, nutritional medicine, homeopathy, and cranial osteopathy can all be useful therapies in treating children of all ages. You can use natural medicine approaches as preventative medicine and to enhance your child’s natural vigour.

We understand that your child’s illnesses can be stressful – for both you and your child. However, we consider many childhood ailments as normal, inevitable and sometimes necessary challenges to the development of a strong immune system and, to some extent, part of their normal learning and development. Our commitment is to help you find the right balance and information to feel confident you are doing your best to support the healthy development of your child’s system.

We can also help you prepare for a natural response to many childhood ailments and accidents in your own home with homeopathic kits for the home and natural remedies for bee stings and insect bites, minor burns, cuts, abrasions and bruises and other minor problems.

We always recommend that you seek treatment for any childhood illness as quickly as possible to avoid chronic conditions developing. The more quickly these issues are addressed, the more successful the treatment outcomes.

If you need further information on weaning your baby or immunisation then our naturopaths can also help you with information, advice and links to resources.

Common infant problems we treat include:

Older children may be treated for:

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Paediatric care is an important component of Osteopathy. It involves assisting your baby's recovery from the forces of birth, and supporting the physical changes of growth.

During normal labour an infant’s head is subjected to very large compressive forces. These cause the head to undergo a process of ‘moulding’, in which the bones of the skull overlap, bend and warp in order to facilitate its passage through the birth canal. After birth, the skull begins to re-expand and un-mould to return to its normal shape, assisted by the baby crying, suckling and yawning. The head gradually loses most of the moulding pattern during the first ten days of life.

Assisted births, such as forceps, vacuum extraction and caesarean section present special problems and require early assessment to address problems arising from the birth, particularly issues of the neck and skull.

Retained moulding from birth can cause a very wide variety of problems for a baby. The effects are very individual, and some babies cope better than others. In some cases even quite severe moulding strains may cause no apparent problem as a young baby, but may predispose the child to other problems as they grow up – such as headaches, or an inability to cope well with future trauma. Some of the effects of retained moulding may include:

In the growing child Osteopathy is also effective in treating conditions such as:

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