Torticolils can impact you and your baby in a whole host of ways, from generalized comfort, latch and feeding, delayed or adapted ministone/milestone progression, as well as playing a big role in plagiocephaly (flat head) and facial symmetry.  

Torticollis occurs when the muscle that runs along the front of the neck and attaches behind the ear gets hypertonic (high muscle tension and tone).  It causes your baby’s head to tilt to one side, and oftentimes gets stuck in rotation.  You may notice they have a hard time turning their head to one side, they likely have a preferred or optimal side for feeding on, and you will notice that their head tips to that side when you see them in a car seat or a crib.  They often have trouble latching on a particular side so you have to modify your feeding positions or switch to a bottle.  Most often, they will dislike tummy time and are typically babies who are uncomfortable and stiff.  You may also notice a flattening of the back of their skull (plagiocephaly), as the muscle tension puts tension through their cranium.  

Traditional therapy for torticollis include watching and waiting (our least favourite), stretching/strengthening techniques, modified feeding positions, and if things are really severe – surgical cutting of the sternocleidomastoid muscle (the involved muscle in the front of the neck that is hypertonic).

While these approaches are helpful (minus the watching and waiting), they are missing one key component.  The NERVOUS SYSTEM! 

Tight, hypertonic muscles are certainly playing a role  but it is not a primary root cause, it is maybe secondary at best.  Like with most things we see in infancy, there is almost always a history of a difficult birth that was intervened with pitocin, and/or tools and instruments or positional constraints.  These lead to injury of the upper neck, skull and TMJ of the baby.  Their nervous system goes into a state of protection and the result can be that the cranial nerves that exit from the base of the skull get injured and start to fire rapidly – leading to hypertonicity. 

Stretching and strengthening can certainly be helpful as we mentioned, and can be great home care exercises, but combined with getting to the root of the root is going to help your baby out most.

What pediatric chiropractic can do for your baby is identify exactly where the stress and tension is getting stuck, then apply gentle techniques that help take the tension off the nervous system, and bring the tension back into balance.  This will include assessing the upper neck, the jaw, palate and tone of their mouth, as well as the position of the cranial bones.