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Gentle Touch
OMM for Infants

by Steven D. Bevier

Lisa Vredevoogd, D.O., uses crainal osetopathic techniques on young children and infants.

Anyone who has had osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) treatments can tell you about the power of touch. However, there are some patients who would like to tell you, but can’t… at least not yet.

That’s because these patients are infants and newborns that find relief through OMM every day. Cranial osteopathy for infants involves the same techniques that are used on adults. Babies require a gentler hand, but the benefits can be tremendous for children who suffer from a variety of ailments.

That’s why Lisa Vredevoogd, D.O., devotes time in her practice every week to treating young children and infants. Dr. Vredevoogd is the chairperson of the department of osteopathic manipulative medicine at MSUCOM and she is board certified in both family medicine and neuromusculoskeletal medicine. When not in the classroom teaching, she is in the clinic treating patients of all ages using her OMM skills.

“I love working with children,” she says, “and when you can stop a baby from crying the parents love you.”

One of the more common conditions seen in the clinic is plagiocephaly – an asymmetry of the head. An infant’s head is soft and malleable, and pressure on the skull during birth or while still in the womb can cause it to become misshapen. Often these irregularities can fix themselves, but just as often they require a little help from the trained hands of an osteopathic physician.

This form of trauma can also cause the skull to put pressure on cranial nerves, leading to a host of problems. Babies are often referred to the OMM clinic because they won’t suckle. Some suffer from torticollis, or “wry neck,” in which altered tone in the muscles of the neck cause the head to tilt at an awkward angle. Other children suffer from otitis media (middle ear infections) and still others develop serious problems with the gastrointestinal system, including reflux disease, constipation or colic.

“These babies are miserable,” says Dr. Vredevoogd, who is also an MSUCOM graduate from the Class of 1993. “Yet, these conditions are very simple to treat, and without medication or surgery.”

Some problems don’t fully reveal themselves until the child is much older, but if treated early they can be fixed in just a few visits. That is why Dr. Vredevoogd recommends that all parents have their children evaluated by an osteopathic physician soon after they are born. She adds, “If I see a child once as a newborn, I often don’t need to treat them again.”

Providing Service to the Public

by Steven D. Bevier

Members of the MSUCOM pediatrics department work as partners with the Ingham County Health Department to provide health care services at clinics around the Greater Lansing Area. Child Health Services in Lansing is staffed by MSUCOM doctors like Stephen Williams, M.D. (pictured here with JoAnn Hector, R.N.) The clinic brings high quality care to underserved and underinsured populations and provides all measure of pediatric care from birth to adolescence. “I have over three decades of experience in pediatric care,” says Dr. Williams, “and this is an unusually wonderful clinic.”