When her daughter started getting intense, persistent headaches a few years ago and visits to the doctor proved futile, Marian Iannuzzi turned to acupuncture. She does not regret it.

“It’s really, really helped,” says Iannuzzi, who lives in Granite, of the twice-monthly acupuncture treatments her daughter, Stephanie Welsh, now 11, receives. “I’d taken her from doctor to doctor to doctor, and was unable to get her help. … But she’s a normal, functioning kid now.”

Whether you swear by them or scoff at them, alternative therapies — acupuncture, chiropractic care, craniosacral therapy and the like — are here to stay. And not just for adults.

A 2007 survey by the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, found that about 12 percent of children under 17 had used some form of alternative therapy in the previous year.

Use was most common among children of parents who also used such therapies, the survey found, and also more likely among adolescents, children with multiple health problems and families who shied away from conventional health care because of the cost.

The most common therapies used by children, the survey found, were natural products, such as herbs and dietary supplements, chiropractic and osteopathic care and deep-breathing techniques.

Even the medical establishment is acknowledging the increasing use — and value — of the treatments. In 1995, the American Medical Association adopted a resolution urging its members to become better informed about the treatments.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, meanwhile, in a 2008 report and a brochure, warned that more research is needed and that, “Some work for children with certain conditions but not for children with other conditions.” But the academy also noted the growing use of alternative treatments for children and acknowledged that the distinction between the treatments and “mainstream medicine” has lessened as many of the treatments “have undergone rigorous research and have been integrated increasingly into mainstream care.”

The popularity of alternative treatments for children is no surprise to Dianne Connelly. In 1975, Connelly and her then-husband, Bob Duggan, co-founded the Tai Sophia Institute, a North Laurel “healing arts clinic” that has become a local leader in wellness education, offering certificates and degrees in many of the treatments. Connelly has practiced acupuncture for nearly four decades, during which she has seen more and more children.

Connelly — who treats Stephanie Welsh — attributes the growing number of children to a “philosophical shift” among parents, who want more for their children than conventional medicine can offer.

“Parents are wanting for their children a whole new way of running their lives,” she says. “They’re turning away from high-tech medicine. They see that low-tech is really where the wisdom is.”

Whether you call it low-tech medicine, complementary medicine, alternative therapies or something else, the treatments are numerous and varied. Some have become widely accepted, almost mainstream: Acupuncture, for example, is used by millions of Americans every year now, and a 2003 World Health Organization study deemed it an effective treatment for a long list of conditions, from lower back pain and arthritis to headaches and tennis elbow.

Other therapies, meanwhile, still face widespread skepticism. But all are being used on both children and adults.

A few of the treatments are listed and explained below.

Acupuncture

Developed thousands of years ago in Asia, acupuncture is the practice of inserting fine needles into various points in the body to relieve pain. It is most commonly used for musculoskeletal pain, according to the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, but can be used to treat an almost endless variety of medical problems.

Because children are often panicked by even the sight of a needle, many practitioners use such alternatives as acupressure (pressing on the patient instead of inserting needles) or “moxibustion” (burning a moxi stick of compressed herbs over the acupuncture point) on babies and small children.

Jade Connelly-Duggan, the 32-year-old daughter of Tai Sophia’s founders, has had an acupuncturist since she was 4 years old, and now practices the treatment herself. She sees about six children regularly. Recently, she treated a teenager who was getting into fights and a 2-year-old dealing with side effects from celiac disease, a gluten allergy. (She treated the 2-year-old with acupressure.)

“People, including parents, are realizing that there are some things modern western medicine is good at, treating infectious diseases, for example, and some things it is not good at,” Connelly-Duggan says. “For chronic, underlying conditions, you need to look at something else.”

Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic is the largest and most recognized alternative medical profession, according to the Annals of Internal Medicine. Chiropractors manipulate (or “adjust”) their patients’ musculoskeletal system, especially the spine, to treat a variety of ailments. But the practice is most often used to relieve back and neck pain.

Russ Antico, owner and clinical director of Howard County Chiropractic Spine and Sports Rehabilitation, says that while he does not specialize in children, he treats a growing number of them, typically for sports-related injuries such as sprains and strains. While chiropractic care is used for a range of ailments, he says it has been “more validated” to relieve musculoskeletal conditions — lower back pain, for example — in both children and adults.

One difference between treating children and adults, he says, is that with the former, you first have to rule out “children-specific” conditions, such as growth-plate problems. While there is no minimum age for chiropractic care, Antico says he seldom treats anyone younger than 7. “They don’t hurt themselves,” he explains.

Craniosacral Therapy

Born some 100 years ago, craniosacral therapy is based on the theory that a trained practitioner, through soft, gentle manipulation of a person’s spine and skull, can ease restrictions on nerve passages and thus relieve a variety of ailments.

Although one of the more controversial of alternative therapies, supporters praise craniosacral treatments as a non-invasive, holistic approach to healing — which they say makes it especially attractive for children.

Julie McCoy, who practices craniosacral therapy in Ellicott City, says that while she does not specialize in pediatrics, she is seeing more and more children, and has treated them for ailments that include digestive problems, sleep disturbances, ADHD and speech problems.

Young people like the therapy, she says, “because it’s non-invasive and very relaxing. It feels good. … It’s gentle but profoundly effective.”

Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy, like many alternative treatments, suffers from popular misconceptions — in this case, the joke that patients are made to cluck like a chicken. Which is why legitimate hypnotherapists stress that the therapy is something patients do for themselves — that the therapist is no more than a guide.

According to the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, hypnotherapy is used to treat a variety of ailments in a variety of medical specialties, including psychotherapy, dentistry and general medicine. In medicine, for example, it is used to treat allergies, burns and gastrointestinal disorders, and in psychotherapy, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and bed-wetting — in children and adults.

In many ways, children are excellent candidates for therapy, according to Victor Fitterman, a clinical social worker and psychotherapist who uses hypnosis in his Baltimore practice.

“Kids, as a group, are highly responsive to hypnosis,” says Fitterman. In fact, he says, the most hypnotizable age group is children ages 6 through 14.

“The greatest thing about kids is they have an urge for experience and an urge for exploring the inner world of imagination, and an urge for inventing, and that really resonates with hypnosis,” Fitterman says.

Because they tend to be such good patients, children generally need fewer treatment sessions than adults.

For more information on these and other alternative treatments — everything from antioxidants and aromatherapy to yoga and yohimbe (an herb) — go to the Web site of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, at www.nccam.nih.gov.