What the heck is infant torticollis? There is really no need to spend money on massages

New mothers often ask Chengzi about infant torticollis. In fact, this problem is very niche, and it is not a serious disease. It will get better if you do more exercises at home. However, I found that many babies in China are diagnosed with torticollis. , they were all recommended to go to some physical therapy or massage units for treatment, which cost several thousand yuan. This is a bit of over-treatment. Therefore, today Chengzi will talk about infant torticollis from beginning to end. What is infantile torticollis? Most of the causes of infant torticollis are muscle problems (there are also other rare causes, which will be introduced later), specifically referring to the muscle that connects the sternum and clavicle to the skull – the scientific name is the sternocleidomastoid muscle – —Relatively short or tight, difficult to pull apart, resulting in abnormal posture of the baby\’s head and neck. Therefore, torticollis can also cause more stubborn head tilt problems. If your baby often shows a tilted head, you should suspect that he has torticollis. Some babies with torticollis will have pain, some won\’t, some will have lumps or protruding tendons in their necks, and some won\’t. Most babies with torticollis are congenital. It is usually caused by the baby\’s posture being wrong when he was in the mother\’s belly, resulting in neck muscle damage. Sometimes it is caused by strains during childbirth. The incidence of torticollis is about 4 in 1,000 people, which is not very high. Congenital torticollis is usually discovered and diagnosed two months ago. One in five babies with torticollis also has hip problems. Therefore, if the baby is diagnosed with torticollis, parents should also pay attention to the baby\’s hip joint development. Regarding hip dysplasia, you can check out this article on Orange: \”What\’s wrong with the asymmetry of baby\’s butt and thigh pleats?\” What the heck is hip dysplasia? 》How to tell if my baby has torticollis? Babies with torticollis will have the following symptoms: 1. Movement restriction: In the natural state, the baby has a limited range of movement of the head and neck. It can only turn to one side and it is difficult to turn to the other side. 2. Head tilt: In the natural state, the head always It is fixed to one side, and the chin is tilted to the other side. 3. Protrusion: there is a raised tendon on the neck, or a large raised bump. 4. Asymmetry: the baby\’s head or cheeks are different on both sides. You have to occupy one. If you occupy two, you won\’t be able to escape. The specific situation still needs to be diagnosed by a professional and reliable doctor. How is torticollis treated? Torticollis caused by congenital muscular causes does not require going to so-called professional physical therapy and massage institutions. As long as parents continue to help their babies stretch their muscles every day, they can slowly recover. Just follow the following method and do it every day. Action 1: Twist vertically ▼ The first step, hold the baby\’s left shoulder ▼ The second step, put your arms around the baby\’s head ▼ The third step, pull hard to the right, it\’s best Let the right side of the baby\’s head touch his right shoulder, fix it in that position, and hold it for 10 seconds. ▼ Do this three times in a row, that is, hold on for 3 10 seconds. Action 2: Parallel twisting ▼ Step 1, hold down The baby\’s right shoulder ▼The second step, push the baby\’s face to the left side ▼The third step, push it to a 90-degree twist position, still hold for 10 seconds ▼Review the continuous actions and do the same three times in a row, hold on 3 10 secondsNote: The picture shows a baby with left torticollis. Vertical twisting means pushing to the right, and parallel twisting means pushing to the left. The directions are different. Don’t make a mistake and push to one side. (The left and right mentioned here all refer to the direction of the baby) If it is a baby with right torticollis muscle, the direction of all movements should be reversed. If you really can\’t tell whether your baby has right or left torticollis, then there is no harm in doing all the movements on both sides. These two actions are very simple. You don’t need to be very professional to do them well. It is best to do them every time you change your baby’s diaper. You are guaranteed to be able to do them 60 times a week. If your baby is born with muscular torticollis, it will work quickly. If your baby cries, try to have someone nearby to tease him and divert his attention. If he really wanted to cry, he had no choice but to let him cry. Anyway, it only lasted a little more than a minute. Also, don’t forget to let your baby lie down as much as possible. Lying down will also exercise your baby’s neck muscles and help him recover faster. You should also pay attention to it at ordinary times and guide the baby to try to exert more force on the side he does not prefer. How long does it take for physical therapy for torticollis to be effective? Generally speaking, as long as you insist on doing the above stretching, babies with muscular torticollis will see results within 10 weeks, and their necks will no longer be so crooked. The vast majority of babies with torticollis will achieve complete correction with physical therapy until they are about one year old. If your baby still has this problem when he is 18 months old, it means that his muscles are too short, and you should consider seeing a plastic surgeon for surgery to lengthen his neck muscles. This case accounts for about 15% of babies with torticollis. There are many other causes of torticollis. There is a relatively rare cause of congenital torticollis, which is not caused by muscles, but by problems with the bones. Most of them are problems with the cervical vertebrae, and some bones are misplaced or glued together. Torticollis caused by this reason cannot be cured by physical therapy. If you still can\’t see any effect after two or three months of physical therapy and stretching, you need to go to the hospital for X-rays for further diagnosis. Some cases of torticollis are acquired for a number of reasons: Mild viral infections Mild head and neck trauma Gastroesophageal reflux Respiratory and soft tissue infections in the neck Vision problems Unusual reactions to certain medications ( Called dystonic reaction) Neck spasm Sandifer syndrome (a rare combination of gastroesophageal reflux and neck spasms) Torticollis caused by these causes are relatively rare and belong to a more professional section. Orange will not dig deeper here. . In short, the vast majority of torticollis is a muscle problem that can be solved with at-home physical therapy. If physical therapy at home cannot solve the problem, you still need to cooperate with your doctor to conduct various examinations to find out the real cause of torticollis. So much for the professional issues with torticollis. Finally, let me talk about a real case that a reader told Chengzi: Her baby was eight months old, and her gross motor development was very good. There was no problem with her posture at all, and her head profile was also very symmetrical. When she went to check up, the child care doctor suddenly suddenly Just say the baby has torticollis and ask to pay for a massage. This can definitely be a scam for three reasons: First, if the baby has torticollis, you can always see some abnormalities. Second, massage itself does not treat torticollis, only stretching. Third, physical therapy once every few days is of no use.It only works if you insist on frequent stretching. I hope mommies can see through this money-making behavior. If you are really worried, you can also go to a more formal hospital and ask other doctors for their opinions. I hope babies with torticollis can do stretching exercises as soon as possible without delay, and babies without torticollis should not be deceived into doing it.