Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Treating Torticollis with Alternative Medicine

So its been a little over a month of treating Kellyn's torticollis with physical therapy.  And she has certainly made progress, but she has not improved to the degree I would have expected considering how much time I spend daily working with her.  I truly believe that physical therapy is the best and most effective treatment for torticollis.  However, I am getting at the point where I would consider adding in some alternative medicine approaches to complement her physical therapy treatment plan.  If there is additional things I could be doing to help my daughter recover faster, I want to do them. 

I have heard of a variety of different alternative medical treatment approaches for torticollis.  Chiropractic, acupuncture, accupressure, massage therapy, osteopathy, cranial sacral therapy, and heat treatment have all been listed as various alternative methods of treating torticollis.  I have read numerous posts from parents who have had great success using several of these previously mentioned alternative medical approaches.  Each time I read about their experiences, I get excited about the possibility of my daughter also improving from these alternative treatments.

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I have even heard of parents getting Botox injections for their baby with torticollis.  I am presuming that the Botox helps relax the contracted neck muscle, which in turn allows the baby to hold her head up straighter.  However, I worry that the Botox injection would harm my daughter.  I imagine that clinical safety trials have not been conducted on the medical use of Botox on babies.  But who knows...maybe studies have been run on this population and I am just not aware.  I am not saying I would never resort to using Botox to treat my daughter's torticollis.  However, I see this as an option only if physical therapy was not working fast enough or well enough.  And I would only consider using Botox if it was recommended by her physical therapist.

At this point, my husband and I are not ready to actively pursue alternative medicine approaches for Kellyn.  We want to give physical therapy some more time to see how Kellyn's condition improves with physical therapy alone.  However, if she does not possess significant improvement in another month's time, we may pursue complementary medicine in conjunction to physical therapy.  I also need to continue to pray for wisdom and discernment about which treatment options are best for Kellyn.  Furthermore, I need to continue to pray for patience throughout all this.  I want so badly for this torticollis to be cured, but I know that it can be a long road to full recovery.  So I will certainly need God to help me wait on His perfect timing and to follow His will throughout all this.