Wryneck - Head Tilts to One Side

My son had the same thing and it went away without doing anything at all. By 8 months you probably wont notice a thing.

Good luck
T.
mom of two boys

I would suggest signing up for baby massage class. Alta Bates offers a good one, but I'm sure there are others around as well.

S.,
My son was also born w/weak neck, always preferred to turn his head to one side. Whwn I started spoon feeding him cereal, and first baby foods, I turned his infant seat around enough for him to have to turn his head the other way, he loved his food,( Kinda sideways) The Dr. was amazed at how well his head tilt problem was being resolved, plus the massage really helps too! Good Luck w/ your Beautiful baby boy

First of all (and all you chiropractic fans out there can piss and moan at me all you'd like, Im used to it by now) - unless your pediatrician recommends taking your infant son to a chiropractor, DO NOT LET ANYONE BUT A MEDICAL doctor handle and/or advise you when it comes to his neck and spine. For what I think is the hundreth time - children and infants have no business being at a chiropractors office. They are not medical doctors, and I for one would never trust something as important as my helpless infant's neck and spine to someone without a medical degree or pediatric training.
Wryneck or torticolis is also known to us lemans as "a crick in the neck" - and your pediatrician is completely correct in advising you to massage the area several times a day. There is nothing medically wrong with him persay, his neck muscles are just very tight and need stretching. I would suggest you buy a book or do some research on baby massage via the internet, and you should be able to resolve the torticolis. Try massaging or stretching his little neck muscles while he is in the bath, and even make a full body massage part of your bedtime routine. I work in special education, and nearly all of my students have suffered or do suffer from either hyper or hypotonia (high and low muscle tone), and even in these severe cases when the muscles of the entire body are compromised, we would NEVER send a parent to a chiropractor. It is not ever a solution - so, continue what you are doing, and if for some reason his torticolis does not resolve itself on it's own, he may need some small physical therapy (NOT chiropractic care) to take care of the problem once and for all.

I don't know that much but found some good information online. Another thing to be aware of with this problem is that babies often get flat heads from being forced to sleep in the same head position each night (this is why I know about it - my daughter has a flat head and I am now looking into a helmet for her, although she didn't suffer from torticollis - she was just an excellent back sleeper). I would keep on the doctor about it and consider some proper baby massage... sorry I don't know more.

Hi-

My son had the same thing. The Dr. had us do some neck stretches 4-5 times a day. It eventually went away. He's now 7 and has no long term evidence of anything :)

Good Luck!

D.

Hello S.,
May name is M. and Am a Christian. As I was reading your request letter, the Holy Spirit prompt me to write you back and say a prayer for your little son. Please agreer with me.
"Father who are in Heaven, in the name above of all names, Jesus Christ I lift up to you S. and her family, specially her litte son, Father your word says, that even since he was in S.'s womb you already knew him by his name, this little one is a gift from you to her, I pray for healing of his little neck, for you to streight his little mascles and I pray that you be glorify with this healing. I pray spirit of peace that passes all understanding in his parents heart to know that you are tha healer of all healers, I pray blessings upon this family and a hetch of protection around this family, around their home and business, and if they don't know you personally, that they get to know you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen."
S., trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own undestanding, and know that God has your family in his hands. God bless.
M.

Take him to a chiropractor and get him adjusted. It may take a few adjustments, but this can easily be fixed.

S., Since he has something with an actual name you can see if he qualifies for physical therepy. It sounds like you are doing a good job. If there is improvment keep it up and just keep watching it.

The physical therapy suggestion made by many others is a very good idea. I did want to relate an experience a friend of mine had. She is a physician and had a 5 year old patient hospitalized with severe neck pain and inability to move the neck from it's "cricked" position. Ran all the tests and found no source of the problem - it was just torticollis. Tried several muscle relaxants and other medications without sucess. Finally they tried a muscle relaxant generally reserved for adults - Valium. It helped him IMMEDIATELY and allowed him to begin moving. Along with some therapy he was completely cured. I'm not necessarily advocating valium for a baby, but to find a specialist who is aware of all the options.

As a Lactation Consultant I see this often - and often I see it way before the Ped does. I know several ped therapsits in my area and they are wonderful people and I refer to them but not for Torticollis...

My professional opinion on torticollis and Physical Therapy is - well, I don't like it. The stretching does hurt and the babies really don't like it at all. I do know that it works, but I prefer a modality that does not cause the baby weeks of pain as it does take several weeks of working and stretching. Put yourself in their shoes...how would you feel? Would you want therapy that was pleasant and quickly effective or one that took weeks of painful exercise that made you cry?

We have in our area (Sacramento) a woman who does extensive work of babies working with their muscles for all sorts of reasons. I work with a lot of babies who had birth trauma and cannot suck correctly, tight jaws, tongues that don't move well, etc. I send them to this gal and she fixes the right up. Babies love the massage she gives (a specialized type of massage) and they respond wonderfully. I have seen severe cases of torticollis resolve within a couple visits - and this is without mom and dad doing painful stretches at home with the baby...

Her name is Venice Sullivan - ###-###-#### check her out here. http://www.hopehealingtherapy.com/new_borns.htm

Honestly - I am extremely picky about who I will send my babies to for assistance when it is needed. She is the best in the area - she is one of the best in the country - her skills are phenomenal...

I wish you luck. It just doesn't have to be painful and traumatic to help baby get rid of torticollis...the rest of the world just hasn't quite figured that out yet...

Good luck to you!

Warmly,
J.

Hi S.,
You might try a chiropractor. I have used Dr. Virgilija Tali. She is in her 30's and comes to your home! She does quite a bit of work with pregnant women, new moms, and babies. I have had her work on my little guy at 6 weeks to correct some jaw issues. She has worked with our moms with similar situations as yours. Here is her ____@____.com or her website www.drtalidc.com ###-###-#### She really is great. Prices are reasonable...I think $35 for a baby with one freebee just to examine? Good Luck

Ask for recommendations for a chiropractor. I was leery of the practice at first. I was in a hoorible car accident in 2005 after my son was born. Nothing could relieve the pain better than an adjustment. Good luck.

I would try an osteopath too.
P.

I used to manage a pediatrician's office, and we saw cases of torticollis once in a while. Your doctor's advice sounds just like the advice the two docs I used to work for would give. Massage, lay on other side, and wait for it to correct itself. Just as a funny aside (in case you need some comic relief): we have two Burmese cats - gorgeous creatures - and one of them was born with a wryneck. So we named her Noke, which, oddly enough, means something like "bent neck" in Japanese. Since we'd named her twin Neko ("cat" in Japanese), it was somehow suitable. Anyway, your baby is more precious than a cat, but I just wanted you to smile so you'd know it's not serious and it will work itself out (so to speak).

K. in EC

HI S.,

I would get another opinion. We have a friend whose daughter had a more serious care of Torticollis and they had to do pretty intense therapy with her. The reason she developed it was because she was a GREAT sleeper and always slept on the same side of her face. (They warn us about a flat back of the head, but not this...) PT is a lot easier to do when it's a somewhat mild case and before the babies get older. It doesn't hurt to ask someone else. Your doctor sounds a little bit nonchalant about it...

Good luck,
J.

Hi there! My little one had the exact same thing when he was about 2 months old. He must have slept in a weird position because he didn't have it at birth. But, our pediatrician noticed it at 2 months old and when I look back at the pictures it's so obvious! Anyways, as soon as it was brought to my attention I adjusted him (I'm a chiropractor) and he was immediately better. I also did the massage on his neck and changed his sleeping side. He unfortunately did get a little bit of a lop-sided head shape from sleeping on that same side for the time he had the torticollis, but at five years old you can't even tell (full head of thick hair always helps). I have a practice here in Sunnyvale and love treating small babies and children and am very gentle. If you'd like to contact me I'm at ###-###-#### (Dr. J. Lomori). I wish you luck!

Mom to three boys (5, 3.5 and 2), J.

my daughter had a slight tilt. our ped recommended that we see a pediatric opthamologist, because sometimes the tilt can be due to a vision issue. she didn't think it was urgent, but worthwhile. we saw dr. day (who was fabulous). she was unable to diagnose the problem as vision related, and recommended that we wait six months to see if it went away on its own, and come back if it didn't. it did go away, so that was nice. you may want to look into getting your son's eyes checked too if the problem persists.

Hi Sue - My name is F. and I have twins that are 3 years old and when our daughter was about 3 months old we noticed the same thing. Our pediatrician told us it was torticollis and that if we took her to physical therapy it would help.

We took her to North Bay Medical in Fairfield over by the mall and they were just wonderful! They specialize in therapy for children and are all very nice and professional. She went for a total of 6 weeks one time per week and she has been fine ever since.

We did stretching with her at home put we were not using enough pressure due to the fact that she would start crying because it does hurt and we were scared we were doing something wrong. The best thing we could have done was take her to North Bay Clinic.

Your son will be fine - it is not a permenant condition. If you need to talk just send another response to mamasource.

F.

Hi- I am not a "fan" of chiropractors myself but I did have a positive experience taking my very young infant to one. I have been to the Chiropractor exactly one time for myself and didn't think it helped much (other than an expensive massage!).
I had extensive nursing problems with my first born though and although I cannot be certain, I think the Chiropractor really helped. I had a couple of months of recurring breast infections while nursing my firstborn. It was a really extreme with two cases of mastitis turning into abcesses, really the worst time in my life medically. The many doctors I saw said they had never seen anything like it. After recovering to a certain degree I was nursing and doing OK but my daughter refused to nurse on the left side. I was emotionally overwhelmed and willing to try anything at that point. I took her to a Chiropractor who specialized in infants and I swear 15 minutes after leaving the office she was nursing on the left. The session itself was very gentle (no cracking or pulling!). I asked a lot of questions and was right there with her the whole time. We went back one more time and never had nursing problems again. My point is never discount an available treatment just because the person is not an MD. There are all kinds of ways to treat medical conditions that western medicine may not endorse but that have worked for centuries. Do your research follow your intuition and make sure you feel comfortable with whatever is happening at all times. Our family doctor (who is an MD) also believes in some alternative treatments including Chiropractors. Good Luck!

S.

My best advice from personal experience is chiropractic. It seems a bit extreme but it does work wonders. You would be amazed. If you live in the Roseville area, I do have an excellent one to recommend.

Take care
and if you have any questions, please ask

my younger daughter has this as well. we did not 'catch' it until she was a bit older than your son. i thought it was just a tendency to act cute and imitate mommy. we ended up having an mri and x-rays done to reinforce that is was indeed a muscular condition. at 2 it is much better. the neurologist we went to said that because it is a muscle issue it will correct in time, and if it does not completly correct cosmetic surgery could be done later. of course, daddy and mommy think boo is perfect the way she is. the dr. also commented that if she wanted it fixed with cosmetic surgery SHE could do it later. after reading online, surgery would involve cutting muscle and tendons in her neck. nothing i would like to sign up for myself. in more extremem cases there are cones you can put on the baby to help encourage the baby to hold their head straight-picture the family dog after neutering. we are seeing good results with time and some massage. you may want to get referred to a specialist if you are more worried and your doc isn't getting you enough info.
good luck.

Whoa, I just saw an episode on Torticollis on Discovery Health, of an adult that has this onset at about age 21, stuck for about 3 years to no avail. The solution was Botox injections and to this day 20 plus years later he is totally fine. You may notice the tilt goes away when the baby in deep sleep, when the brain is sleeping the muscles totally relax. For an infant I personally would just follow the doctors advice and pray that it is a temporary thing but should you find yourself in the future with the same problem, visit Discover Health and try to get the adult information. God Bless you and hang in there...I find nature has a way of correcting itself quite often. Wishing you and the baby the best.

My son, now 43, slept with his head way back. It scared me and I would move his head. He would end up with it back the same way. He was OK when he was awake, so I didn't worry too much. I think your doctor gave you good advice. The tendons probably are shrunk on the one side and tendons can stretch. You say he is improving, so keep doing what you are doing.

Even though it was a non-traumatic birth the doctor still more then likely pulled and twisted to assist in getting the baby out. Chiropractic is the best next step. If any vertebrae were misaligned in pulling him out all the stretching and massage won't fully fix it and would leave him with problems. Usually only 1 or two adjustments will take care of it.

My daughter had it as well. We took her to physical therapy and between what they did and what they taught us to do, it did go away. See if you can get a referral for p/t. In the mean time, keep up the good work. It will go away.

Hello. My son had the same problem. When I brought it up with my Ped. at about 2 months, she referred us to a Pediatric Physical Therapist (I have Kaiser) and we were seen for 6 appts. We learned not only how to loosen up the muscles on the one side but also how to strengthen the opposing muscles. I would push to get a referral because he should be evaluated by a specialist. We got total results and he is just perfect at 15 months. That's my two cents worth, I hope you get some help. Take care.

S.,

I wish i can help but no worries kids grow out of it. how cool he has the same birthday as mine :)