Re: Re: Tort ladies- OT

[Guest guest]

Hi Amy,

Don't feel discouraged- the lump usually makes it harder to resolve quickly

but the fact that it has gotten smaller should give you great encouragement.

The therapy ball is an oversized ball that you can buy at Wal-Mart, Sports

Authority or any sports shop. It's really made for adults to be able to sit

on- so its very strong and yet bouncy when you sit on it. What I would do is

sit in a chair, place the ball in front of me between my legs and put

on top sitting upright. I would lean him towards his tort side, and

then his non-tort side, and the head has an instinctual idea that it should

stay midline, not sideways, so he will use his neck muscles to do that. He

would hate tummy time, but not on the ball! Of course, this is totally

supervised because they would fall off if you didn't support them. Tummy

time on a bed could is good too because I think they just like the elevation,

but the ball is much funner! I had in daycare so my stretches were

done religiously at night, after a bath and he was conked out. You are lucky

that Emma will let you do that while sleeping, a lot of parents have a hard

time and just can't get in good stretches without them squirming awake, and

are light sleepers. Massage really helped I think. You can also put

uncooked rice in a sock, not too much because the rice needs to move around

so it can conform to the shape of the neck, heat just a little in the

microwave (always put it on your own skin for about 20 seconds to see just

how hot it is) and place on the lump or tight muscle for a minute- very

relaxing. Our pt also used craniosacral therapy, and we found it very

beneficial (mostly lets them relax and release that muscle on their own).

When Emma looks left (you will have to encourage this as much as possible-

would stop trying but put a dog or Elmo in that direction, he would

try to look. When he would look, I would hold his shoulder down. Some kids

also pull up their hip on the tort side, hold that down as well. Massage

also the facial features in an upward motion, and the neck, shoulder, even

rib cage in a downward motion. You can lay her on the floor and start from

the shoulders with your hands, and lightly come down to their hands and pull

down (make sense?) to help get that shoulder down. ' rib cage on the

left started pulling up, so I would do this often and we accomplished our

pt's goal in getting his rib cage even. So much to say, so little time!

Please email me with any questions you may have. I think as long as you are

working everyday on this for the next couple of months, you will see total

resolve too! It's not easy, so keep up the good work- one day you'll say-

WHEW!

Take care,

and

(Tort resolved, DOC Grad)