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.

In addition, early torticollis signs are usually ignored by parents because they think their baby's head tilt is just the typical "floppy neck" of a baby.  Since infants have very little head control, its natural to see a head tilt as nothing more than the typical baby presentation.   That's exactly what I thought when Kellyn was an infant.  If your infant tilts his/her head to the SAME side every time, this may be an indicator of torticollis developing.  Other possible signs could include: elevated shoulder, trunk tilt and/or curvature, facial asymmetries (eye, cheek, ear, jawline, neck), flat spot on back of head, favoring looking towards one specific direction, favoring one hand over the other, and favoring nursing on one side over the other.  Just because your baby may show one or more of these signs does not necessarily indicate that he/she has torticollis.  However, if you have any suspicions of torticollis, I strongly encourage you to bring it up to your child's pediatrician.  As you will see in the following pictures, Kellyn's torticollis presentation was very subtle and would not be super obvious to the average parent.

At this age, I just mistook Kellyn's head tilt for the normal "floppy neck" of a baby.
At that time, I hadn't even noticed that one eye appeared larger than the other.
Little did I know, she was exhibiting signs of torticollis.

It was hard to even notice her tilt as an infant considering
her adorable chubby cheeks pretty much hid her neck.

I look back at her infancy pictures and realize her head was usually tilted to the right.
I wish I would have noticed this at the time. As they say, "hind sight is 20/20"

I just thought that it was completely normal for her head to always tilt like this in the car seat.
When my son was a baby, his head always tilt in the car seat and he was fine,
so I didn't think anything of it.

One red flag that I wish I would have noticed is that she tilted her head to the SAME side every time.

If you notice that your baby is always tilting her head to a specific side,
then its important to have her evaluated by her pediatrician.