Seven Weeks into Physical Therapy

So here are some pictures seven weeks into physical therapy. Although Kellyn has had some plateaus and regressions since her four week pictures, today happened to be a "good torticollis day." I knew I had to capture it on camera. Basically, Kellyn was holding her head at mid line a lot more frequently than usual. In addition, she was not raising her right shoulder as much as she normally does.

Since she's looking straight ahead, her head tilt is less noticeable here.
Although she still has a slight C-shaped curvature in her trunk,
it's improved dramatically since the beginning of PT.

 

Stability Ball Strengthening for Right Torticollis

Since Kellyn's left neck and trunk muscles are both weak, this is a great two-for-one strengthening exercise for her.  This exercise looks so fun that my son Luke gets jealous when I do this with her.  The only way I can complete this exercise with Kellyn is if I promise that he gets a turn doing the ball exercise after her.  Just what I need...even more physical therapy exercises to do :) Anyways, here's a video tutorial AND step-by-step written instructions (with pictures) below.  This exercise is for babies with right torticollis.

Video Tutorial:

Kinesio Taping for Torticollis

So yesterday, I took Kellyn to a chiropractor who happens to be a Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner (CKTP).  The chiropractor did a brief evaluation of Kellyn, asked about medical history, and then got started with Kinesio Taping. 

The process was pretty quick and simple.  She basically used three small pieces of Kinesio Tape on her neck area.  She taped her on the side of her neck that she tends to tilt.  The method she used should encourage muscle inhibition.  This makes sense because Kellyn's right side of her neck has tight, overactive muscles.  She explained to me that there are a few different methods to try.  She said we can give this method a few days to evaluate whether or not it worked.  If it doesn't work, we can try the other alternative ways.

If you look closely, you can see the beige colored Kinesio Tape on her neck area.