Pediatric Physical Therapy and Myofascial Release Services
What is bodywork and how can it help my child?
Baby Bodywork - Addressing your Whole Baby
Baby bodywork encompasses a range of gentle and effective techniques that can benefit your child. These therapeutic techniques include infant massage, craniosacral fascial therapy, myofascial release, reflex integration and reflexology.
What kind of conditions/symptoms does this treat?
Bodywork/manual therapy can address various conditions in babies, such as muscle tension, head-turning preference, torticollis, tongue tie restrictions, difficulty feeding, poor sleep, reflux, colic, and body asymmetries (crookedness).
Other conditions it has help with is mis-shaped head, decreased desire to move freely, tummy issues, and poor tolerance to tummy-time.
Learn more about common infant struggles and how a holistic approach to physical therapy can help.
What should I expect a session to look like?
Bodywork techniques are very gentle and should not cause pain.
I use a series of gentle techniques to locate patterns of fascial strain and the child often releases this strain through “infant driven movements” or unwinding.
A session typically takes about 45 - 55 minutes depending on how much work the child needs or can accept. There will be breaks intermittently as needed by the child (play-time!).
I will then provide home ideas to address your goals at the end of each session.
“He has kept down his last two feedings entirely and I could literally feel the biggest difference in his hip tension when I did the belly massage. I’m amazed! I’ve never been able to bend his knees without massive tension and resistance. It was so fun to do that with him and he loved it! ”
Our children develop through movement and touch. When an infant has a restriction in their movement, obvious or not, they might struggle in their development.
I connect with your baby through movement to help them heal and move more freely.
Through various modalities of Physical Therapy, I coach and provide holistic tools to help parents find ways to facilitate growth and motor development.
Is this what my baby needs to become well-adjusted in their developmental journey?
Bodywork releases structural tensions, helping your baby’s readiness for all the jobs awaiting their development.
How soon will my baby see results?
Your child’s therapy needs will vary depending on their age and how involved their physical needs may be. I will recommend the frequency of visits and the duration of overall treatment after our initial evaluation.
On average, a child will benefit from weekly sessions for 1-2 months, followed by a few monthly sessions for maintenance.
Most babies respond very well to treatment and see changes in the first session.
“At the first visit, Jenny improved my daughter’s mobility within the first half hour. It was amazing!”
What type of sessions are recommended and how much do they cost?
I will complete a thorough assessment on your child or baby. Movement facilitation through gentle handling techniques to assess restrictions and your baby’s chosen patterns will be used.
Based on your concerns and the assessment results, your active involvement is recruited in both developing the plan of care and implementation in your child’s daily play.
A home program will be created after each session to ensure progression of skills during the week and between visits. Sessions will be INDIVIDUALIZED based on the needs but they typically run 45-60 minutes.
Follow-up sessions will be suggested based on concerns, needs, and response to treatment.
Services and Cost
Infant Physical Therapy EVALUATION
Birth - 12 months
60 minutes
An initial evaluation consists of comprehensive body assessment, reviewing and identifying functional issues with caregiver, creating a treatment plan, set goals and provide initial bodywork session + education/support.
$175
Pediatric Physical Therapy EVALUATION
13 months +
60 minutes
An initial evaluation consists of comprehensive body assessment, reviewing and identifying functional issues with caregiver, creating a treatment plan, set goals and provide initial bodywork session + education/support.
$175
Follow-Up PT Treatment Sessions
50-60 minutes
A treatment session is any follow up appointment following initial evaluation to continue treatment, to continue to implement manual bodywork modalities, developmental and motor skill therapy, implement or change strategies.
$120
Patient Testimonial
“When I discovered that I was pregnant, I, like most moms I think, began to envision what life would be like when my baby arrived. I imagined this great birth story. The baby would enter our lives. I would be a glowing mom with many baby cuddles and easy breastfeeding.
I’m not sure why we all envision perfection when we know that life throws many curveballs and never is quite what we plan.
After my daughter was born, breastfeeding brought unimaginable pain. I constantly searched the internet for solutions and saw multiple lactation consultants.
Breastfeeding was supposed to be “natural” and “easy,” but for me, it was far from both. Every day I would tell myself “I can do this for one more feeding, for one more day” while inside wanting to quit. The internal fight between my reality and my dream was exhausting. Yet, somehow I remained committed to my dream becoming reality.
When my daughter was 4 weeks old, my midwife recommended as a last hope a wonderful lactation consultant named Lavawn. She provided me with the most wonderful team and community of people to meet me in this place of struggle and feeling of failure with my little baby.
Lavawn suspected my daughter had a tongue tie and a lip tie affecting her feeding, causing severe nipple damage (and pain!), and affecting her head shape/neck mobility. She recommended a pediatric dentist who performed a frenectomy and tongue tie procedure. She also introduced us to Jenny, a pediatric Doctor of Physical Therapy.
We met Jenny when Annalise was 5.5 weeks old.
As a physical therapist myself, I had high standards of care, though I had no background in pediatrics. Watching Jenny work with my baby convinced me that we had found the best. Jenny quickly became the highlight of our week. Words can only explain a part of how Jenny helped us. She entered our life when both my baby and me needed encouragement, support, and care to reach our goals. She provided exactly what we needed.
Before starting therapy, my daughter had torticollis (tightness in her neck) that caused her to tilt her head to the right/caused her to look to her left side. We noticed this the most when she was in her car seat. At the first visit, Jenny improved my daughter’s mobility within the first half hour. It was amazing!
When I would do the exercises with my daughter, she would be able to go for hours (and then days, and then weeks) sustaining the new mobility and centered head position.
Now, as a graduate from Dr. Jenny’s physical therapy practice, my 6-month old daughter is a tummy time pro, is propelling herself forward (though I’m not sure I can call it crawling quite yet ), can roll and scoot and best of all has a centered head. Her head shape is now nicely rounded where before it was asymmetrical.
I am so glad that I did not wait to call Jenny.
The happy ending to our story: the tongue tie revision/frenectomy immediately changed my breastfeeding relationship- my nipples were nearly completely healed within 1 week of the procedure after 6 weeks of damage and no change in healing. I now love breastfeeding as does my daughter.
Jenny provided us with exercises and things to do at each developmental stage – which I loved as a first-time mom who didn’t always know how to play with my baby.
I cannot recommend Jenny enough as a physical therapist.
If you have questions about your baby’s development, see Jenny. She will help and be so kind and encouraging about your questions!
While life may never turn out quite like how we plan, sometimes we develop better relationships, more strength than we knew we had and ability to help others through difficult times as a result of our struggles.
Jenny has been a blessing to our family and I would recommend her time and time again.”
-Rachel P.
What happens when I click the Book Appointment Button?
Great question!
You will be directed to my online booking site. There you will click my picture or the physical therapy tab. You will then see my next available appointment time.
I hope you find a time that works for you and your family!
Have another question that is not answered here?
Get in touch with me using my email jthurner@valpotherapykids.com or use the contact form.