Hi! My name is Chelsea and my daughter has congenital torticollis.
I feel like I'm admitting to a secret or something. And it's not a secret at all! I just wanted to post about torticollis because I had NEVER heard of it before Stella was born. It's actually very common. If you're interested in learning more, here's some information on webmd, just click here!
We aren't sure what caused Stella's torticollis. It could have been how she was positioned in utero OR it could have been related to trauma during birth. We did have one little issue during birth. Stella's left arm started to come out beside her face. My doctor had to push her arm back inside. I remember my doctor saying her left arm was "compound." I remember her telling the nurse to "Check Stella's left arm!" Everything with her arm was fine but I think whatever happened might have injured her neck instead; therefore, causing torticollis?!?!
When Stella was around eight weeks old we made an appointment with her ped because we were having tons of issues with breastfeeding, well, just feeding in general. After lots of discussion, her ped said it sounded like acid reflux. Stella started Zantac and WOW, it did wonders! If we ever missed a dose, the crying would start back within minutes. Stella just recently stopped taking Zantac. Her ped said sometimes babies outgrow acid reflux around four to six months. He said we could try lowering her dose and then just stopping it all together. We did both and she's been just fine. She's officially off Zantac now.
So at the end of that appointment, her ped told us that she had torticollis and we needed to stretch her neck several times a day (like each time we changed her diaper). We were both like, okay, what is TORT-A-COLLIS? As soon as we got home I did some googling and completely freaked out. I couldn't believe her ped hadn't noticed it sooner. By the way, we've switched peds since then! But it made sense, Stella did prefer to turn her head to one side.
Here are a couple pictures of Stella when she was a newborn:
We never really noticed that she preferred that side until her ped brought it to our attention. But now when we look back at pictures, we really notice it. We started the daily stretching which you can check out, just
click here!
I really started worrying about Stella's torticollis when it didn't seem to be improving with the stretches. Josh and I didn't feel comfortable doing the stretches. Our ped didn't make a big deal about it and we just didn't know what was going on or what we should be doing. I did some more googling and read that physical therapy is very important in correcting torticollis. Research shows that an infant's torticollis can be completely resolved by twelve months of age if physical therapy is implemented. I called a physical therapist in our area. After her brief initial consultation, she said Stella's torticollis was extremely mild. She said it would be resolved within a couple months. She only recommended home stretching and no weekly or bi weekly phyiscal therapy. She showed us how to do the stretches a little better so we felt more comfortable.
Two months later we still noticed Stella's torticollis. I found a new physical therapist in our area that specializes in torticollis. She is AMAZING! She did an awesome initial evaluation that was super detailed. It was neat to see how well Stella scored on her developmental milestones. She's right on track and even above on some. We are thankful that she is developing well even though she has torticollis. So the new plan includes at home stretching with bi weekly physical therapy appointments. During these appointments Stella's neck is stretched really well, and no, she does not like it.
I think Stella's torticollis has improved drastically. We are going to continue bi weekly physical therapy appointments for a few more months. Her ped recommended it as well. We do not want her torticollis to regress.
Any advice, suggestions or stories?
