Kilkennyoccupationaltherapy

Home
Ireland
Kilkenny
Kilkennyoccupationaltherapy

IAIM Infant Massage Instructor
Children's Occupational Therapist

Baby massage classes available PM/Call for more details

26/09/2025

The most important thing here is seeks **and/or** needs.

Sometimes what the nervous system needs is what the child is avoiding. ❤️

Sometimes what it seeks is what we need to provide 👀

It is all a dance!

Occupational Therapists are trained to support that dance.

23/09/2025

3 Ps for Toileting: The OT role

🏡 Place; looking at getting the poos out, wherever the child is most comfortable doing this and gradually moving this towards the bathroom.

🛝Play: supporting developmentally appropriate play to encourage bowel movements and support sensory hyper/hypo reactivity.

Professionals:
👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️ linking with medical professionals and working as a team.

When working with the small baby. We look at all the same things we just adapt the play and support with lots of other tools.

💩
WEEK 2 of baby massage is all about poos, we learn about the poo routine for infants and we chat about poo inducing play

22/09/2025

Extra date added💙

Please see my website link in bio for more details.

3 spaces available

20/09/2025

Feeding

It takes a village, sometimes it takes the whole village and sometimes it just takes a few. Each professional has a role to play working within their own scope of practice.

What is the OT scope of practice when it comes to feeding?

💆‍♀️regulation

🫟sensory

🔩motor

Gaining and improving function from all of these elements.

16/09/2025

PILLARS OF SUCCESS

💤 the Occupational Therapist role in supporting sleep so we can further support other areas of development. We normalise what that child’s nervous needs and seeks ❤️

👶 and we can get the ball rolling on this from early infancy onwards 🥰

➡️swipe to see how OT supports sleep in early infancy.

15/09/2025

3 Occupations I see as a priority when working with babies and children:

💤SLEEPING

🍎FEEDING

💩TOILETING

🏃when these 3 are in order we hit the ground running.

🛑When these aren’t in order we first work in conjunction with the medical team to rule in/out any underlying issues. Then we start to work either directly or indirectly trying to support these issues as a priority before looking at other goals. Sometimes other goals naturally occur when these 3 pillars are supported ❤️

Over the next few weeks I will unpack the OT role in these 3 occupational domains.

Parents and other OTs do you agree?

21/08/2025

Today was mental health week in baby massage classes and we spoke all about the CAREGIVER 💕

It’s lovely learning all about baby development, but if we don’t look after the caregiver then it is harder to implement what we learn with/for our babies. Mind yourself and the rest will fall into place a lot easier.

There is a reason why the caregiver/s is at the top of that pyramid.

19/08/2025

What does success look like in Paediatric Occupational Therapy services? From babyhood all the way through to early adulthood.

✔️It is a multitude of variables that come together to form a full picture.
✔️it is a key worker getting everyone together to support the child. All families know how important everyone coming together is and how much easier this is on the family. Disjointed work without everyone in harmony causes confusion amongst everyone. Whatever services the family is involved in (public or private)
✔️it is practical support and ideas that fit into the families life and in time becomes second nature to them. The advise needs to constantly evolve with the family.
✔️if it’s not weaved into the families lives with ease and enjoyment, then the OT must problem solve and adapt. It is not just weekly 1:1 sessions! Intervention sessions are incredibly important, however it is the carryover at home and school that is the 🔑
✔️it is individualised to suit the unique family and child that are before you. This is why the assessment process takes to long. Without the assessment we don’t know how to tweak, adapt and meet goals. We don’t even know what our goals are! Without assessment we are shooting in the dark and hoping we hit the target without the clarity that an assessment gives us. (The beauty of working with young babies is that the answers are very clear and there is less digging to find the issue❤️… because they didn’t have the time to practice compensatory strategies for their challenge)
✔️ we make the challenge fun to work on so the whole family (not just the child) gets that sense of success
✔️we remain curious ALL THE TIME and want to find the reason for a particular movement pattern, behaviour, reaction, routine, avoidance… (basically whatever is making the child and families engagement in activities of daily living difficult).

14/08/2025

Benefits of the humble Playpen❤️ inspiration taken from baby massage class! Lots of chats about this today.

Baby containers have become very popular lately while the playpen has taken a back seat. Excessive use of “baby containers” (anything that restricts baby from the freedom to move their body as they please) can inhibit development. Why? Because children need the freedom to move their whole body so they can grow and learn about their body and the world around them.

“Container Syndrome”: Exactly what it says on the tin (or container). This is the over use (stress the word OVER USE) of placing babies and children in equipment. Equipment means, bouncers, jumparoos, car seats, basically anything that restricts their movements (please note some children need to be placed in equipment for postural needs and they work with a Doctor, OT, physio, SLT, other health care and educational professionals for their needs). .

Babies who are placed in “containers” for long periods of the day may lead to immature reflex and sensory integration, it can reduce strength, it can reduce the ability to motor plan, it can cause muscle tightening and stiffness and it can increase the risk of flat head syndrome. .

Again, please don’t panic this is not what this information is about. We all need to place babies in car seats, we may need a little bit of peace every now and again so we place them in the bouncer so they can watch us cook and clean. This is OK. It is the prolonged use of equipment throughout the day when issues can arise. I would advise to limit the use of equipment and highlight that the floor is the best place for them. Play (supervised) on the floor, on their back, sides and tummy is how the child learns about their body and how it moves. If you can fit one in your house, a playpen is also a good option just ensure the child has the safe space to move that body and explore. So less of the container and more of the floor to explore ♥️ .

08/08/2025

Thank you to for me these lovely little NogginStik rattles for use in baby classes. We eventually got them to Ireland. I love these little rattles because:
✔️they work brilliantly in the pre crawlers classes
✔️we can get neck extension while in prone
✔️we can work on fine motor skills such as:visual tracking, flexion and extension of the fingers, work on grasp reflex, cause and effect and pronation supination of the wrist
✔️we can work on head turning
✔️the little teether ears are great for oral motor stimulation

… now just to try and get more of them to Ireland 🇮🇪

05/08/2025

A lovely little family reminded me of this at the weekend. Expose the child to the life you want to live with them ❤️ because what makes you as a family happy will inevitable be good for that little person in your life. Even if it doesn’t feel like it in all the moments, it will build, for them, a little more resilience within their nervous system, wen they do the hard thing with the support of their family all around them.

Sometimes, the child and family need support with exposing the child in just the right amount of doses so their nervous system does not become overwhelmed. This is where Occupational Therapy can support. We are trained to grade the activity to ensure the child has just what they need to try the things they avoid in every day life situations.

01/08/2025

I am reposting this with permission from because there is no better way to say it.

“When you meet your baby their brain is only 25% built. But in just 3 years it becomes 80% of its adult size. All of that miraculous growth is highly shaped by you.

Neuron’s that fire together wire together and does that don’t won’t.

Which means:

✔️the love they feel when you hold them

✔️the safety they feel when you respond to their cries

✔️the joy they feel through your eyes

Are creating their brain architecture.”

This is social emotional development, this assists with supporting their:

✔️Independence
✔️emotional attunement (being able to recognise on a conscious and subconscious level their own emotions and emotions of others) which reinforces regulation. Regulation leads to …
✔️attention
✔️a strong sense of self and who they are in space
✔️Resilience
✔️happiness
…all protecting their:
🧠mental health (now and in their future).

Address

Hugginstown
Kilkenny

Telephone

+353838579883

Website

https://www.kilkennyoccupationaltherapy.ie/about.html

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Kilkennyoccupationaltherapy posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Kilkennyoccupationaltherapy:

Shortcuts

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in Kilkenny?

Kilkenny Occupational Therapy

Our Story

Group work and 1:1 assessment and intervention are provided by Kilkenny Occupational Therapy. Kilkenny Occupational Therapy is passionate about early intervention and believes health promotion and education provided to parents in the early years is key to helping a child reach their full potential.

My name is Helen and I run the company Kilkenny Occupational Therapy. I have been an Occupational Therapist for the past 8 years and have specialised in paediatrics for the past 4 years. I am also a Certified Infant Massage Instructor. Baby massage classes are provided in the Kilkenny area. The importance of the tactile system is widely known in the OT community and we want to bring that to new parents through the medium of baby massage classes. In the classes all the massage strokes are thought along with the recommended theory from the course. Over tea and cake we then go into more detail about child development and how to encourage this through the use of baby massage, games and songs. Kilkenny Occupational Therapy is passionate about child development and believes early intervention is key to their development. Parents are encouraged to chat about their baby's development and look at what they are doing and why. We encourage parents not to compare their baby’s to others as children learn at their own pace. A little guide is provided to parents to encourage their child to reach their potential.

Once restrictions are lifted and there is more scope for face to face practice again, we also plan on running movement groups in local pre-schools. "Little Movers N' Shakers" will bring early sensory development and the importance of engaging the sensory systems to children and parents in the local community. Parents will also get a chance to encourage these skills at home with each child being sent home with different play ideas to help development after each session. For updates, classes and group work announcements follow my page @kilkennyoccupationaltherapy. Our website is currently under construction and will go live soon. Our website will provide details of all courses completed and continued professional development.