Thursday, October 31, 2013

Shoulder Stretch for Elevated Shoulder

Along with her right torticollis, my daughter often elevated her right shoulder.  This caused her torticollis to look a lot worse than it actually was.  Once I started doing this stretch with her regularly, I noticed that she did not raise her shoulder up as much or as frequently.  If your baby doesn't elevate her shoulder, then disregard this stretch. As you'll see below, I included a video tutorial and written instructions to show you how I do this stretch with my daughter.

Video Tutorial: 




Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Torticollis Physical Therapy Re-evaluation

Kellyn had her eight week re-evaluation with her outpatient physical therapist today. Kellyn must have known she had to perform because she was having "a good torticollis day." Anyways, the physical therapist noticed continued improvement in her muscle strength and flexibility. She was also happy to see that Kellyn's head tilt was negligible while lying on her back.

Baby with mild torticollis and her big brother holding hands
As you can see, Kellyn's head looks nice and straight while lying down.
Maybe she's showing off for her big brother.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Kinesio Tape for Torticollis: Round 2

So Kellyn's first application of Kinesio Tape did not seem to improve her torticollis.  It was applied to the affected side of her neck (the side she tilts to) and in a method to encourage muscle relaxation.  After taking a little over a week break from the Kinesio Tape, our physical therapist from the early intervention program tried a different technique on Kellyn.  She applied the tape to the unaffected side of her neck to encourage muscle facilitation.  This makes sense since the unaffected side of Kellyn's neck has weaker muscles.

Baby with torticollis with kinesio tape on her neck
This is the second application of Kinesio Tape on her neck for torticollis.