3 Exercises to Promote Indendent Standing

Standing is a building block skill that eventually leads to babies learning to walk.  And once baby masters walking, it's likely that the torticollis will improve.  This motivates me to do everything I can to help Kellyn master these skills.  In this tutorial below, I'm going to demonstrate three easy exercises that encourage independent standing.  These exercises should only be started when child exhibits the ability to bear weight on feet while being supported.  As always, please consult with your child's physical therapist before trying any of these exercises.

Video Tutorial

Exercises to Promote Walking

Lately, we have been working on exercises to promote walking.  As I've mentioned before, once walking becomes well established, we expect Kellyn's torticollis to improve.  Therefore, we are working on both torticollis exercises and motor skill development exercises.  In the video and written tutorial below, I have described two simple exercises to encourage walking.

Video Tutorial:

How to Help Baby Learn to Crawl

I am anxious for my daughter to start crawling because her torticollis is likely to improve once crawling is established.  Her physical therapist has taught us several different exercises that encourage crawling. Here's one of those crawling exercises below.

Video Tutorial:

Cruising Exercises for Baby

Before a baby walks, she will first develop the ability to cruise along furniture or household objects. Kellyn's physical therapist believes that once Kellyn starts walking, her head tilt will decrease. Therefore, I have been working with Kellyn on cruising exercises to develop the precursor skills to walking.  Below is a video tutorial and instructions for three different cruising exercises to promote future walking.

Video Tutorial:

Discharged from Outpatient PT

Yesterday was one of Kellyn’s outpatient physical therapy re-evaluations for her torticollis. The physical therapist officially discharged Kellyn from the program! After about five months of outpatient physical therapy, we are finally done. All the hard work is finally paying off. I’m so excited, relieved, and thankful.

Hat's off to Kellyn for getting discharged from outpatient physical therapy!

Range of Motion Exercise #3

Due to Kellyn's right torticollis, she has limited range of motion turning her head towards her right side.  This exercise will help increase her range of motion looking towards her right.  I like this exercise because I could sometimes get away with Kellyn not even realizing we're doing a torticollis exercise.   When babies are young, they often get pretty captivated by an interesting toy.  And since young babies are often too young to crawl, they can be pretty content just staying in one place and looking at something interesting.  Unfortunately, by the time your baby is mobile, this exercise may become near impossible to do since baby is unlikely to stay in one place for you.  I am including both a video demonstration and a written explanation of this exercise.

Video Tutorial:

Supported Crawling Position #2

I'm anxious for my daughter to start crawling in hopes that her torticollis will improve.  Other parents have reported that achieving this skill has made a difference in their child's torticollis.  Anyways, this is a pretty simple exercise that will allow your baby to become more comfortable being on the hands and knees crawling position.  It will also allow your baby to partially balance her body weight with one hand just like she would during crawling.  In the space below, I have included both a video tutorial and written instructions detailing this exercise.

Video Tutorial:

Toys to Use During PT Exercises

Most of us can probably agree that our babies don't enjoy their torticollis exercises.  When our babies get upset, we naturally feel upset too.  Thankfully, I finally discovered the key to getting through a good set of torticollis exercises is distracting your baby with some cool toys. The goal is to get your baby so involved with playing that they barely realize they are actually doing their exercises.  Also, make sure to only allow your baby to play with these special toys during torticollis exercises only.  If you leave the toys out so that your baby can play with them anytime, then the novelty of the toys wears off.  I can't promise that cool toys will make every exercise session perfect, but it certainly helps make the experience more bearable for everyone involved.

Rolling Back-to-Belly

In addition to torticollis, Kellyn also had mild trunk curvature.  This trunk curvature made it difficult for her to roll onto her right side.  When she rolled, she usually favored rolling onto her left side.  Kellyn's physical therapist wanted her to become comfortable rolling to her less favored right side.  So here's how the exercise I do to help her become more comfy rolling onto her right side.  I have include both a video tutorial and a written tutorial below.  Please note that the written tutorial offers a bit more hands-on guidance and support for your baby doing the roll.  The video offers less hands-on support and is geared more for babies who can roll independently with a little extra encouragement.

Video Tutorial:

Side Lying Stretch

I started doing this torticollis exercise once my daughter became too mobile and wiggly for the side lying stretch using the Boppy pillow . This version of the neck stretch seems to work much better for her now.  Below is my video demo of this torticollis stretch. I have also included step-by-step written directions for this exercise.  Please note this stretch is designed for the right sided torticollis.

Video Tutorial:

Torticollis Pictures: 20 weeks of PT

So my daughter has been in physical therapy for her torticollis for twenty weeks (over four months). In comparison with the last set of pictures posted after eleven weeks of PT, I think there has been a very subtle improvement in her torticollis. I think she's holding her head a bit more midline and her range of motion to the right has improved slightly. Her trunk seems more straight and her facial symmetry is continuing to look great.

Caught a moment of her keeping her head midline.

Torticollis Physical Therapy Re-Evaluation

Here's a video post about my daughter's physical therapy re-evaluation for her torticollis.  She has now been in physical therapy for four months.  As her mother, it's more difficult for me to notice Kellyn's improvements since I am with her everyday.  I really value hearing the physical therapist's more objective judgment of Kellyn's progress.

Strengthening Exercise for Torticollis

With my daughter's right torticollis, the right side neck muscles are tighter and stronger than the left side.  In addition to stretching the right side of her neck, we also do exercises to strengthen her left side. Both types of exercises are important in helping to lessen her torticollis.  The exercise below works to strengthen her weak, left side neck muscles by forcing her to work against gravity.  I have included a brief video tutorial AND written instructions in the space below.

Video Tutorial:

Pulling to Stand Exercise

Here's an exercise to help my daughter become more comfortable with pulling to stand (pulling up).  We're hoping as her gross motor skills develop, her torticollis will improve.  We want her to get comfortable with transitioning from tummy to knees to supported standing.  Below, you will see my video demonstration of this exercise, as well as a written explanation with pictures.

Video Tutorial:

Side Lay-to-Sit Strengthening

This torticollis exercise is a great two-for-one exercise.  Since Kellyn has right torticollis, it helps her strengthen her weak left side neck muscles by working against gravity.  In addition, it helps her learn to more easily transition into different positions.  This will help her with her motor skill progression.  In this post, I will share both my video demo AND the written step-by-step instructions (with pictures) for this exercise.

Video Tutorial:

PT Re-Evaluation #2 Update

Kellyn had another outpatient physical therapy re-evaluation for her torticollis and it went really well!  She's nine months old and has been in physical therapy now for three months.  So basically 1/3 of her little life here in this world has been in physical therapy.  Considering the various things she's been through since birth (esophagus surgery, NICU stay, X-rays, numerous doctor's appointments, and physical therapy), she is one tough little cookie.  Anyways, check out my video update on the outcome of this re-evaluation.

Side-Lying Torticollis Stretch using Boppy Pillow

This is a great right torticollis stretch we learned at physical therapy for our daughter.  A Boppy Pillow, which seems to be a staple in most parents' homes, is needed for this stretch.  In this post, both a video tutorial AND step-by-step instructions with a picture will be provided to explain this torticollis stretch.

Video Tutorial:

Torticollis Progress: Video Update

To change it up, I decided to do a video update on Kellyn's progress versus a regular blog post update.  In this video, she's almost ten months old and has been in physical therapy for approximately twelve weeks.  Watch the video below to see how she's progressing in physical therapy:

Sitting to Crawling Position

As I mentioned before, babies' torticollis may improve once crawling becomes established.  That's why I spend time doing physical therapy exercises that encourage crawling.  This specific exercise will help my daughter become more comfortable moving from the sitting position to crawling position.  When babies first start crawling, they will often get into crawling position from the seated position.  So this exercise encourages that natural transition that babies will often make into crawling position.  I am including a video  and written directions (with pictures) below to demonstrate how I do this exercise with my daughter.

Video Tutorial:

Torticollis Pictures: 11 Weeks of PT

So it's about that time again when I post Kellyn's progress pictures from physical therapy for her torticollis.  Comparing to her six week pictures, I would say she has improved tremendously.  Now keep in mind though that her six week pictures were taken on a day that she was having a "bad torticollis day".  Even still, I notice a great improvement overall as compared to when she first started physical therapy.

Her right head tilt is negligible in this picture,
and her right neck depression looks much less noticeable.