My Son Was Diagnosed with Torcicollis...

Hi J.,

My son also had torticollis, diagnosed at 2 months, and has been going to an excellent physical therapy outfit called "Theraplay" - don't know where you are located, but they have several locations in the greater Phila area. The therapists there (both physical and occupational) integrate the stretches and manipulations with playtime, which ends up being enjoyable for the baby. We also have Early Intervention come to our home for therapy. You should definitely look into Early Intervention in your area, it is free and the therapists are generally very good. Your pediatrician can give you info on how to contact them in your area. Best of luck to you, and if I can be of any assistance please let me know!

Jen

J.

First of all, torticollis is a very common occurrance in new babies (birth is a traumatic experience for them as well), some cases resolve themselves and most all can be resolved with physical therapy. I am an athletic trainer (not the same as a personal trainer) and worked performing physical therapy for years before my children were born, so when my daughter was one month old and I started noticing that she, too wouldn't turn her head to the left I began performing some stretching exercise on her. She hated them and screamed and being a mom, I couldn't bear to keep doing this to my precious baby girl myself, so I had her seen by a pediatric physical therapist. Also, due to her muscle tightness and weakness she developed positional scoliosis (curvature of the spine). With weekly physical therapy sessions over the course of several months, she has recovered almost full range of motion in her neck and x-rays show a perfectly straight spine, although some muscle weakness still remains causing her to not always stand stright (she is almost 13 months now). One other thing you really need to watch for is cephaloplagia (flatening of the skull on one side) due to his head always lying on its right side. Rubbing his head and really limiting his time lying with his head to that side is important. I hope I helped a little. If you have anymore questions for someone who has been there, I am happy to help.
Also, I used to work for a chiropractor who had lots of experience with children and torticollis. I took my daughter to see him early on in the process, but that really did little to help. I also tried positioning her so that everything interesting was to her left and so that gravity would work to strech her neck to the left, but those approaches also didn't work (she had quite a severe case)

M.

hello. i think it depends how bad the torticolis is. my son was diagnosed w a mild case when he was ~5 months old. we went to physical therapy where they stretched him out and gave me exercises to do on him at home. we went every week for maybe 2 months, then every other week for a month, then once a month. just went yesterday and he was discharged (he's 9 months old next week). he has a 10% less range of motion on one side, but they're not concerned. we had him in a jumperoo a lot and i swear that strengthened his core & neck on it's own..
ps the therapist mentioned that the bumbo seat is good for strengthening his sitting muscles but said since we have him in the exersaucer and jumperoo, we didn't need the bumbo, also b/c he'd grow out of it fast..
good luck
J. :)
ps the therapy center was Children's Therapy Center in Springfield, they were great.

I have no presonal experience with this disorder, however I have heard that physical therapy works wonders. Also, you should ask your doctor how to stretch you're son's neck and try to talk to him on his left side a lot more often. This is supposed to help stretch the muscles. A friend told me that you should see some results within 2 months. Good luck to you.

Hi J.,
My son was diaganosed with torticolis at 2 1/2 months old. His condition was severe and he had to wear a helmet b/c of the flatness that happened on the back of his head (due to his limited range).
I brought him to a pediatric physical therapist out of Sparta (she was good - and actually came to my home for therapy) and his range was improved almost immediatly with therapy from her and the excercises we did at home. But his head did not return to normal right away, therefor needing the helmet. I will gladly give you her name if you are interested.
I will be glad to share all that I know about this with you.
Let me know if I can be of ANY assistance.

Hi J.,

My son, too, was diagnosed (by us, not the doctor) with torticollis when he was about 2 months old. I recommend you start going to therapy. My son is now 14 months old and while it has gotten a lot better, he still has a tilt when he looks straight down. We started therapy pretty much right away, and we did constant stretching and massaging of the neck muscle. I think it's very important to be doing the exercises at home. Now that our son is older he resists when we try to do exercises. He also has a tot-collar that he takes off whenever he can. What did your doctor say?

D.

Hi J.

I don't have personal experience with it, but I'm like 99% positive that this is the same condition I'm thinking of...with the shortening of the muscles on one side of the neck? It's been a while, but my chiropractor shared a story with my husband and I probably 1-2 years ago about a baby with this condition. Actually it was his neice (who's father is a chiropractor in the same practice). I'm trying with the details here - it's been a while like I said....but the main idea is definitely accurate. Anyways, the medical doctors wanted to do surgery and cut the muscles to loosen them. This wasn't really something the parents felt good about and so traveled back to the Pgh area from CA to work with the grandfather (also a chiropractor in this family practice of father and 2 brothers). They did different manipulations and stretches pretty intensively I think when she was little as I think it's somewhat important to deal with promptly. The little girl did great and showed no or minimal signs after working through the chiro treatment and they were able to completely avoid surgery.

If you are interested in talking with them more about this condition and what options they may be able to provide your child, I'd be happy to share their contact info. It's a great family - long time family friends of my husband's grandmother. We took both of our little ones within days of their births to get "checked" and they have been getting periodic adjustments since after significant falls or when they just need "an attitude adjustment" (getting grumpy because not feeling comfortable usually). They've helped us with a variety of situations - injuries, pregnancy pains, options for breech baby, and basic health maintenance. I'm sure they'd be happy to do a consultation and talk to you about what they can do and how it will impact your child's health. Let me know if you want the info.

H.

J.:

My son was born with a host of medical issues, amont them, torticollis. We were fortunate to have the help of a great developmental team--which included a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, a feeding therapist, and a child psychologist. The team was able to help us figure out lifestyle exercises which helped our son...and did not require us to make dramatic changes to his or our routine. I recommend that you look into an early intervention program (they are generally county programs), have your son tested, and have them work with you to develop a plan of action.

I know that it can be frightening--I kept asking myself what I had done wrong and the truth is that this has been a blessing in disguise. We have found a great group of professionals who we rely on for everything.

Good luck and keep asking questions!

HI J.-I don't have personal experience-but my girlfriends daughter had it-at about the same age. I know that her pedi recommended some physical therapy that really helped alot-I know that the majority of the therapy were very simple exercises that she did at home-meant to get your child to use their weaker side more. You may even be able to look up some therapy on the web? I am not sure how much your pedi has gotten into it w/ you./ Good luck-I wish you the best. L.

J.,
Hello! My son was also was diagnosed with Torcicollis when he was around three months. We purchased one of those postion sleepers that made him sleep on his left side. That helped a lot. We also placed all of his toys to his left, so then he would have to turn and look left to see us or his toys. My son is now six months old and his head is shaping out nicely. I think the biggest thing that helped us was having him sleep on his left side.
M.

Hi J.,
Go to www.webmd.com and make sure your son really has this condition. When my son was 5 months old when my sister-in-law an occupational therapist thought there was a problem. After checking with the doctor he too thought there was something wrong and wanted to start physical theropy. Just a visual check no testes were done. After me and my husband explained that he will only sleep on the one side all the time but if he really wants to look at something on the other side he will. We found that there was noting wrong with him except his sleeping pattern. When ever we found him on the strong side we needed to switch him to his weak side. We also made sure we played more with his weak side. We also had him sleep in his swing in our bedroom with a neck support for several weeks too. The neck supports you use for infants in a car seat or strollers. With in a few weeks he was looking to both sides with out a problem.

I hope the fix for your son ends up to be as easy as ours was. Ever since my son was conceived I was told there may be problems that I just didn't feel were true. I have become very persistent with questions and requiring testes be done before any treatments are ever started. My son is now 4 1/2 and has a great health history. Good luck and I hope for the best for your son.

Depending on what state you are in ....you might be able to get help for free....although your insurance (hopefully) would cover the physical therapy for your son; if it doesnt, ask your pediatrician or call the county offices and see if an Early Intervention program is available for him.

My best friends sister's second son had a stroke while she was in labor with him. I know it's not the same thing but he also had limited range of motion on one side. Have you looked into physical therapy for him. Most states have programs set up so that the parents have to pay very little or nothing for it. Look into these programs in your state, or talk to you doc's office to get more information about what avenues you should persue. I would be as aggressive with this as possible. Shane is now 4, he still needs more work but he's come a long way.

Hi,

My name is M. and I am a Medical Massage therapist. I would highly recommend massage. Please discuss with your physican first and get his/her input. I work with children who have been diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy and other illness. Please feel free to contact me any time.

Hello,
did you try a Chiropractor? Make sure they have experience with infants.