P.S. PIPPA’S BABY BOY’S HEAD MASSAGE

KATE MIDDLETON’S sister, Pippa Matthews, who is also Vogue Williams’s sister-in-law has used cranial osteopathy on her son Arthur, now two.

‘The osteopath noticed one side of his neck was tighter than the other, which explained why he favoured one side sleeping,’ Pippa said.

‘She also saw that Arthur’s arms were stronger than his legs, so she gave me an exercise to help him.’

Cranial osteopathy is a handson treatment using the lightest of touches to manipulate the skull and spine. In babies, it’s used to treat colic, inability to breastfeed and poor sleep. COST: From €50 an hour.

EXPERT VERDICT: ‘Cranial osteopathy is used to address asymmetry in the cranium [the bones that form the head] that may have occurred in the uterus, during birth or from sleeping positions,’ says Sue Weber Hellstenius, a specialist in chiropractic paediatrics now based in Sweden. ‘A 2015 study in the journal Child’s Nervous

System suggests that children with asymmetry can be delayed in gross motor milestones such as sitting and crawling.

‘However, not all practitioners have the adequate skills to assess an infant accurately, and more rigorous research is required.’

A 2016 study in the journal PLoS One, looking into the usefulness of cranial osteopathy, concluded that strong evidence on the reliability of diagnostic procedures and the efficacy of techniques and therapeutic strategies in cranial osteopathy is almost non-existent.