Helmet Evaluation for Plagiocephaly

Today was the big day where we brought our daughter in to get her head evaluated and potentially fitted for a helmet. The official name is a cranial remolding orthosis, but helmet is a lot easier to write out. As I mentioned before, many children with torticollis also have a condition called plagiocephaly. Basically, its a flat spot on the back of their head and it may cause their head to have an asymmetrical shape. The helmet can correct the plagiocephaly by essentially remolding the head shape. Unfortunately, many insurances do not cover the helmet because its often deemed cosmetic. With a $2500 price tag, we were holding our breath to see whether or not they would recommend a helmet for her. The good news is that the evaluation appointment was free, so it wasn't like we had anything to lose by getting her evaluated.

Darren Brode © 123RF.com | photog2112

Football Carry Stretch for Right Torticollis

The football carry stretch exercise stretches the tight neck muscle on the right side of Kellyn's neck that contributes to her right torticollis.  In this post, I included both a YouTube video tutorial and written step-by-step instructions below.

Video Tutorial:

Torticollis Diagnosis

On Friday, Kellyn had her two big appointments with her pediatrician and her physical therapist.  Her pediatrician officially diagnosed her with torticollis.  Later that day, Kellyn had an initial evaluation with an outpatient physical therapist.  She confirmed the diagnosis, did some initial physical therapy exercises with Kellyn, and gave us a helpful flyer to take home that outlined her exercises with detailed descriptions and pictures.  I was so nervous about her initial physical therapy appointment that I brought along two sources of moral support: my husband and my mother :)  I felt less anxious with them by my side.

Feeling Scared

So it seemed like an eternity between the three days of waiting for her pediatrician and physical therapy appointment to get an official diagnosis of torticollis (which at this point, I was almost 100% that she had).  In the meantime, I started researching torticollis on the internet.  I learned about the condition of torticollis and various treatment options.  I scoured torticollis forums on BabyCenter to see what other parents' experiences were.

The one thing that stood out to me was that many babies were diagnosed with this as infants and had started physical therapy early on.  Now my daughter was almost seven months and that almost seemed late to be officially diagnosed and treated in the "torticollis world".  The more I learned about this condition, the more fear and guilt crept into my mommy conscience.  My poor daughter likely started showing signs of this condition around one or two months of age.   That means that I could have spent the last four or five months working with her to correct this problem.

Torticollis Suspected

So for the past few months, I've been noticing my daughter Kellyn has been tilting her head to her right side and tilting her trunk to the left side.  I also noticed that her left eye is open slightly more than her right side.  I mentioned her tilts and her eyes to her doctors when she was about six months old, but no one seemed to be too concerned.  I was given general advice of stretching her and encouraging her to look to her right side.  I was also told that if it doesn't correct itself over time, than she may need physical therapy in the future.