From as early as a few weeks old, we noticed that Collin liked to favor lying or resting on his right side. The same held true in the crib, as he always was lying on his right. We started to get concerned when we noticed that he would only turn his head to that same right side, even if there was something distract him on the left. He would (literally) twist his head to the right all the way, stretching and trying to look to the left from the back (instead of just looking to the left normally, around the front). When we saw that his right side was getting really flat we brought it to the pediatrician's attention beginning at the 8 week appointment, only to hear, "it will round out on its own". Still concerned at the 4 month appointment, the doctor we saw on this day did say something. She noticed the flattening and head-tilt to the right, and immediately referred Collin to a pediatric neurosurgeon to rule out torticollis. (Torticollis is a condition where the muscle in the neck is tightened causing a loss of range of motion, and head tilt to one side; correctible by physical therapy.) Torticollis was ruled out by the neursurgeon, but we still had the head flattening (positional plagiocephaly) to contend with. The flatness on his right side was causing severe assymetry of his ears, one eye appearing larger than the other, bossing or protruding forehead and not to mention ear infection after ear infection. Babies with plagio are more prone to ear infections because fluid has difficulty draining due to the assymetry of the tubes in the ears. | |
|