Tight neck, flat head- HELMET!

At Isla’s 2 week appointment her pediatrician said she had tortocolis, plagiocephaly and brachycephaly. She said it was from how Isla was positioned inside me during my pregnancy. She gave us a handout on how to do neck stretches.

**Tortocolis is when the muscles in her neck are wrapped to tightly around the bone causing the head to tilt to one side. Tortocolis cause plagiocephaly and brachycephaly.

**Plagiocephaly is when the head is flat on one side (the opposite side of the tortocolis neck. The flattening of the head causes the ear on that side to become pushed forward and is usually lower or higher than the other side. It also causes the bones in one side of the face to push out as well which can affect the jaw, nose and eye from working properly.

**Brachycephaly is when the head is wider than it is long which basically just makes the head look funny.

So Isla has all three of these conditions. We did the stretches at home as well as we could since we only learned how to do this off of a handout. At each appointment her pediatrician mentioned to keep up on the stretches and said if it didn’t improve enough she would have Isla in physical therapy. We were diligent in doing the stretches but by the 4 month appointment her condition had only slightly improved so we were given a referral to a physical therapist.

We started physical therapy right away. The physical therapy is located at Tucson Medical Center (where Isla was born and where my mom works). On a side note TMC is probably the best hospital in Tucson. The care they provide is amazing and they have a focus on children- and they are a non profit hospital. Isla’s therapist is Charlene and she is amazing! She taught me so much about Isla’s condition and how important the physical therapy is to her development. Unless you experience it yourself you have no idea how involved the therapy is and how it affects everything she does. Not only do we take Isla to TMC regularly for therapy but we do it at home all day, every day. We can’t skip days because as she grows her condition will worsen. So we do the physical therapy daily to keep her muscles from getting tight around her neck. Isla’s condition also affects her development. Without regular therapy she would favor one side of her body causing the other side to become weak which will prevent her from rolling, sitting, crawling, standing and walking. This is why it is so important to do therapy everyday and to make it a part of her daily routine. With Charlene’s help Isla is rolling both ways, sitting like a pro and army-style crawling- we are working on getting her on all fours!

The physical therapy has done wonders for Isla’s tortocolis but has not improved her plagiocephaly enough so we were referred to a cranial orthotic specialist (aka the helmet people). Isla was fitted for a helmet and is currently wearing it now. She will wear it for about 4 months for 23 out of 24 hours a day. We only take it off to clean it and to clean her. The helmet works with her growth spurts. The helmet is symmetrical- it lies against the high spots on her head and there is a gap over the low (flat) spot. So as she grows her head will fill in the gap and become symmetrical.

I know this is a lot to take in but I feel like I must educate people about her condition. Please feel free to ask me any questions- I am happy to explain. I want people to know that when a baby is wearing a helmet it is not just for cosmetic purposes- it is a preventative measure for future developmental and medical problem that come along with having plagiocephaly.