oh torticollis!

I haven't talked much about it lately, mainly because there really hasn't been much to talk about. He still goes to physical therapy every week and we work on just about everything. Last week, his therapist decided that this coming week (this thurday) she was going to re-evaluate him. I was really hesitant about this because I don't want her to "discharge" him, but I also wanted her to do it so that I would have a full report about how far he has come, what all he still needs to do, and just her over all thoughts. She asked me if I had any concerns about his head. My only major concern was that you can tell that one side is just a little flatter than the other. This is normal for most children with torticollis, but is usually fixed. She told me that she didn't think it was really bad but told me about a helmet that we could have him wear. She seemed to not really think that was what we needed to do but she wanted me to do my research on it and form my own opinions about the helmet before she tells me hers.

With the helmet, he would have to wear it 23 hours a day. It's better for them to have it before 9 months. They use a little tool to measure how round the head is on each side and his is only a 4 mm difference. Severe is 16. His is considered very mild. Since his head is a little larger than normal, it would put a bit of pressure on his head. This was everything the physical therapist told me. The way she talked about it, even though she wanted me to form my own opinion, made me feel like she really didn't think that we should do it. I think we have decided to not do it. With it only being 4 mm, it's not a developmental concern, and is more for cosmetics. I don't care about cosmetic. The therapist even said, now that he is sitting up, moving, will be crawling and walking soon, all those things will help and, while she can't promise that it will get better, she said a lot of times it does. Also, once he starts growing hair she said she doesn't think it would be noticeable at all.

My other concern was development. In his first evaluation, there were several indications that he may be a little behind with reflexes and some other developmental things. Knowing that, I knew that it may take him a little longer to reach milestones than other kids his age. It has taken me a very long time to accept that and understand that every baby is different. Just because he doesn't roll over at the same time other kids do, sit up and crawl at the same time, does not mean that he is going to be slow the rest of his life. I guess that was the teacher part of me. It has worried me that he would have a hard time learning things and wouldn't be "as smart" as the other kids. Stupid, I know but it has been a real fear of mine. I think I have finally realized that it is OK! Just because another kid starts rolling over, sitting up, crawling before him does not mean that there is something wrong with him. Some babies just don't do things at the same time. That DOES NOT mean that they are not as smart and will have issues for the rest of their life.

Sorry for the rant, Back to development- the therapist said she thinks he may be a little behind. We didn't talk much about it, I think we will discuss that more in detail after his re-evaluation. She said her main concern was that he was not able to go from laying down to sitting up. We have been working on it a lot, but he just doesn't seem to want to do it. I feel like that is something that will come a long once he starts crawling. I'm not too worried about it, but it's still something that is in the back of my head.

As for crawling, he still rocks, but doesn't take off. He scoots himself backwards, and then gets frustrated because instead of getting closer to the object he wants, he gets further away. He has more interest in pulling up on things and taking steps and standing rather than crawling. I think we may have an issue with wanting to do some things before the other. He wanted to sit up before he rolled, now he wants to walk before he crawls. People say this is normal, many kids do this, however his physical therapist DOES NOT want him to walk before he crawls. She said that it is not good for them to walk before they crawl. Crawling develops a lot of muscles and coordination. The side to side motion of throwing and catching, along with many other things. We talked about this a lot in detail and she even said that there are studies that have showed the correlation of crawling/walking first with reading and learning development. She was VERY passionate about not letting him walk before he crawls so we work on crawling a lot, and then we work on the correct way of pulling up (crawling over to an object, hands up and sitting on your knees, and then one leg up then the other- rather than pulling straight up with both legs). She also said that when people "bear crawl" like kayden attemps to do (with his legs straight and butt up in the air) that they tend to walk on their toes which is also a big no-no but she said when he pulls up and walks with you holding his hands, that he shows no signs of wanting to walk on his toes (thank goodness!)

so that's where we are at. We still do neck stretches because he still has a little bit of a tilt but his range of motion is fabulous. She said she the tilt can either get better or worse when he starts walking so we will have to see. With her saying that, I think we will be going to physical therapy at least until he starts walking, which is fine by me. The tilt is also worse when he is tired so we are having to work on that also.

I definitely thought torticollis would be easier than this, but i'm thankful it's nothing more serious.