Torticollis

[infinity]

Torticollis - anybody?? ok, so now i am worried my son may have a slight case of this. why, bc my daughter had it when she was born, and i went thru 1 1/2 yrs of therapy to get her neck straight. it was hard work, but thank goodness she "grew" out of it. i was looking to make sure patrick didnt have it when he was born, and he was fine. turned both ways, rolled both ways, had a straight head. now since last week, my mom and i both notice him tilting his head to the left. i know the sure signs of it. someone i spoke to who's daughter had coronal cranio surgery last year wound up with it bc of all the swelling. now patrick recovered very fast from the surgery he had, but then why am i wondering if he might have favored a side just for those few days, bc one side of his neck was indeed more swollen than the other, could just those few days lead to this? anybody have experience with this? thanks in advance for any advice. you guys have been a great source of info for me.

[lucsdad]

our son has torticollis, due to the CS.
our dr's believe it will go away after the CS surgery, with some physical therapy.
lisa

[cheryl2]

Some kids, especially with coronal, develop what's called ocular torticollis. In ocular tort, the tilt is caused by vision difficulties rather than muscular problems in the neck. Clara has this. We did PT for months but it didn't help at all because the problem was her eyes. If it doesn't seem to be a muscular problem, have his eyes checked by a pediatric opthamologist who is familiar with cranio kids.
Take care

[Connor's Dad]

Connor meets with PT for 3rd time tomorrow. If your other child had condition I am sure you already know more than us, however the therapist said the condition is very common with many forms of craniosynostosis. PT thinks 3-4 months of therapy should have Connor in good condition, and stated his case was caught pretty early and not very severe. Good luck!

[Katie]

Dillon also has torticollis that has been present since shortly after birth. He was in PT for quite some time. There was some great improvement, but it stopped getting better after a while and it was suggested we look in to causes other than muscular. Long story short, we went to several Dr's had his vision and hearing checked (both of which there are concerns with, but not causing the tort), and then saw a physiatrist.
The physiatrist was wonderful and looked at Dillon as a whole rather than just his neck. Dillon appears to have scoliosis, most likely caused by the tort. After the exam he felt that the problem is indeed muscular so we are trying something called ultrasound physical therapy starting tomorrow.
He's also got hypotonic (low muscle tone, its causing over pronation of his feet) ankles which is also contributing to the whole body curve appearnace. He has braces for his ankles, and once his neck is "straightened out" the rest of him, spine included should follow suite.
That was kind of a long post that went a little off subject, sorry about that.
Here is a site that has some streches you can perform at home that may help a little. You might want to get the OK from her ped first though:
http://www.pedisurg.com/PtEduc/Torticollis.htm

[Jennifer]

Emily had a slight case of it. Our NS beleived it would go away after surgery (as she explained it was easier for her to see out of the 'wide' eye and it became habit). As soon as her surgery was over, I had made an appointment w/ a PT and an optho....both said it wasn't a muscle and/or eye issue and with just a few weeks of the exercises, it was gone.....

[eden'smom]

My daughter also has ocular torticollis. She had one strabismus repair in Feb. and w're frustrated to see that she is still tilting. Her eye doctor gave us 50/50 odds of needing to operate on the other eye in the next 6 months. She sees a PT who feels her neck muscles are completely normal. Her eye doc doesn't doubt that it is an eye issue directly related to craniosynostosis. As he descrbied it to me, kids tilt their heads because it does complex things w/the muscles that help the world look more "normal" to a kid who has one eye higher than the other. That's kinda simplistic, but I didn't completely understand his explanation. I hope that this helps and doesn't scare you more. See an eye doc w/cranio experience, as Cheryl recommended. HOpefully, it'll fix itself w/time and or PT. Good luck.

[snickers9246]

Holly also had a slight tilt when she was little, it corrected itself more-so after the surgery. We were told it most like ly would once her orbits were aligned properly. We also did some therapy with a Chiropractor prior to her surgery, when she was little for colic and then for the tilt. She's fine now! :adore