Monday, March 31, 2014

Early Signs of Torticollis

Kellyn was officially diagnosed with torticollis at seven months.  Unfortunately, she was showing signs of this condition well before that.  If I had known what to look for, I could have had her diagnosed way earlier and her condition would have been much easier to correct.  Torticollis treated before four months has the best prognosis.  That's why its so important for new parents to be mindful of the signs and symptoms of torticollis, so that they can catch it and correct it as fast as possible.

At the time, I never thought anything of her head tilt.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Review of Hip Helpers (for Excessive Hip Abduction)

While learning to crawl, we noticed that Kellyn had trouble remaining on all 4's which obviously made crawling more difficult.  Her legs would often split and she would fall back on her stomach.  We soon discovered that she had excessive hip abduction and low tone.  Thankfully, our physical therapist suggested trying Hip Helpers in order to help correct the issue.  Hip Helpers are special shorts that are worn by the child to address excessive hip abduction.  Here is my product demo & video review of the product:





Friday, March 21, 2014

Torticollis Pictures: 7 months of PT

It's crazy to think that Kellyn has been doing physical therapy for her torticollis for almost seven months.  That's equates to almost half of her life considering she'll be 14 months in a little over a week.  I feel like her torticollis progress has plateaued over the past few months.  In my opinion, the head tilt doesn't look more pronounced, but it also doesn't look much better than it did a few months ago.  That's a little frustrating to me since I dedicate a good chunk of time daily to her torticollis exercises.  I just want to know that the hard work I'm putting in is actually making a difference.  On a positive note, her motor skills are continually progressing.  Over the past few weeks, she went from taking a couple steps to taking several steps. We still have tons of spills and I would not officially qualify her as a walker yet, but she's certainly on her way.  Anyways, check out her progress pictures below.

Happy baby with slight right torticollis playing with cup
Pretty accurate representation of her current head tilt. Happy about her great progress
since the beginning, but frustrated that progress plateaued in the past few months