Toddler Leans His Head to Left Side

While I don't have personal experience with this as a mother (I am new to motherhood with a newborn), as a pediatrician, I would DEFINITELY recommend that you have him evaluated by his doctor. It may be nothing, but there are certainly some medical conditions that can be addressed that may be the cause of this sort of head tilt.

He could have something wrong with one of his eyes... I have seen it before... one or two of the muscles that control eye movement may be off track and need operation... their vision is impaired and tilt their heads to compensate their vision... or he can have neck problem... the only way to know is to patch one of his eyes to see if he or she will straighten their head... I can't remember the name of this condition but it happens!!!

Love, G.. :0)
http://stemcellforautism.blogspot.com/

Set an appointment with his doctor, and if nothing shows up there, maybe get his eyes checked. My son would tilt his head to the side during certain activities, and we found out that he needed glasses.

M. *~

This really sounds like you need to consult your son's doc. I know some people don't have insurance, or have huge copays and hesitate to bring the kids in due to cost. I would too! This situation, however is not a time to hesitate no matter what the cost. He really needs to be seen by someone qualified to figure this out. As others have said it is most likely either a vision issue or Torticollis, but only a doc can tell you for sure.

My daughter had the same problem and I had her checked she had Torticollis she was put in physical therapy and goes to a social play group from a early intervention they came and tested her. She also didn't start walking until she was 17 months and she can run all over also but her muscles aren't strong enough for her to go up steps by herself yet. It just took her a little longer to crawl and walk. But her cognitive skills are 4 months ahead so she is very smart. It has completely gone away and I think because we took care of it early and that is was the early invention is for. She has never had it again thank goodness. Hope this helps.

Jen

I had trouble for years with leaning my head to the right. I found out when I was in 4th grade that I had severe asigmatism. I also had one eye that was stronger than the other. I learned to compensate by tilting my head to read the chalk board or watch TV, etc.

It took a long time for me to learn to stop tilting my head even after I got corrective glasses. It had become a bad habbit.

My daughter recently went to a eye specialist because she was rolling her eyes occasionally when she would turn her head quickly from looking at one object to another. Right now they are waiting to see if she out grows it. She's 14 months. If they can see her, they can see your son more easily.

There could be a whole number of things that are causing your son to do this. You should get him in to his doctor and they will refer him to a specialist. More than likely and eye doctor. It won't hurt to have it checked. Then you will have an answer when someone points it out to you.

good luck!!

You should really consult a chiropractor. This is the only specialist that will be able to correct the structural problem that is going on. I was 9 when I had a torticollis and saw a chiropractor. It only took one visit for me but it could take more depending on what the doctor finds.

Have him checked for Torticollis (I had that as a child). It's when the muscle in the neck becomes fibrotic and it gets worse if not treated as a child. Not saying that's what he has, but I would ask his pediatrician.

Your pediatrician should be consulted. A neurological exam can be completed to determine if your child has a congenital weakness or some other problem. Physical therapy might be required to help him balance and strengthen his neck muscles appropriately so that his head is centered. It's also possible that he has a dominant eye and he leans his head to see through that dominant eye better. So, the place to start is at the pediatrician's office. Best wishes.

Hi I.!

I work for an early intervention program and one of the screener questions we use talks about that. Have you had his vision tested? Sometimes if vision is a problem, the children will lean their heads to get a better view with the good eye.

What does his pediatrician say?

Take your little fellow to pediatric opthalmologist because it's probably a visual problem. He has found the angle that gives him the best image and it involves tilting his head. My daughter did it too.

Six months or so of eye exercises and no more tilt. The tilt will ultimately lead to scoliosis, so you'll want to get going on this.

Good luck, Mommy!

D. Ross in Fort Myers,FL

See your pediatrician or get a referral. Also, try your local regional center. They will come to your home, evaluate your son and if he qualifies you'll be able to receive therapy. Good Luck!

Hi I., I see a lot of folks have told you about torticollis. Along w/ torticollis sometimes comes plagiocephaly (misshapen skull). My son had both and was diagnosed at 6 months. He had the head tilt and only if you looked straight down on his forehead could you see a slight depression of one side. I took him to PT and she recommended some exercises. I'd already been doing them since I read the information on the internet. Tummy Time was the #1 advice. But my son would cry every time I put him on his stomach and then once he could rollover he wouldn't stay on his stomach. My chiropractor recommended a cranial chiropractic specialist in Los Gatos. He took his own son to this doctor. I decided to see if the cranial chiropractic therapy helped since the exercises weren't providing any big improvements. I took my son to see Dr. Thomas Bloink. Dr. Bloink emphasized the importance of laying on the stomach to strengthen the neck and back muscles for crawling. He was concerned that my son wasn’t crawling yet or making progress in that direction. He also said the issue w/ torticollis is not just a tight muscle that needs stretching, it’s tension inside the skull from the dura. After ONE adjustment his head was straight! AND he went on his stomach w/out complaint AND he rocked on his knees for the first time! It was amazing. I knew he would be okay. Five weeks later he was crawling on his own. And he has only had his head tilt two more times in the last 9 months. Each time his head straightened up after the adjustment. The first time was during the week after his first adjustment and the next time was a couple of months later during a growing spurt. I hope this helps. Here is Dr. Thomas Bloink’s info: California Cranial Institute 431 Monterey Avenue, Los Gatos, CA 95030 ###-###-#### www.DrBloink.com. He doesn’t take insurance. I send the receipts to my insurance and they reimburse part of the cost. Dr. Bloink is 1 of 2 specialist in this field in all of CA. Good luck to you and your family. D.

I am interested to find out the same answer. My son does that too.

ok im a little young but anyways i had the same problem when i was a baby... and i found out it was because i had very low heaering in my ear so i just thought that leaning my head to the side would make it easier. hope this was close

I am not trying to scare you but my big (really she is very petite) sister (she is 51 now) had this issue as an infant and child. Before MRIs and all the hi-tech stuff nowadays. My mom was an RN and took her everywhere, including JohnsHopkins, who told her to treat her normal,her nerves were not developing properly on that side. Well she did "straighten up" in time. BUT!
She never could carry a baby past 3 months, then in fertility treatments, nothing worked. The fertility drugs (hormones can feed cancers) caused issues, well guess what? Her eye doc sent her straight to neurologist, then neurosurgeon, brain tumor, she had had it ALL ALONG! even as a child, but there were no diagnostic tools back then. I advise you to go to a doc, and keep going til you get an MRI, UC Davis is awesome, I hope you wind up there. My sister has had brain surgery, radiation and chemo. She is our miracle though! I just wish they could've found & treated when she was little. Dont let the docs poohpooh you, insist on an MRI. Her tumor is not comrised of "bad cells" but it is in a very dangerous place (brain stem). Good luck and if you dont get the help you need, get back on here, I will hook you up with her, she runs BT support groups now.