Re: Developmental delay question

[Guest guest]

Tort, depending on the severity of course, is fairly painful.  It was described to me not unlike having a charlie horse that you can't get rid of.  You adapt to the pain and stay in positions that minimise this as much as possible.  On her worse days Elaine had her right arm retracted and pretty much refused to move it.  Obviously you need to stretch and strengthen to treat tort and this can be grueling on the child.  (Not unlike flexing your foot to relieve a cramp in your calve according to the PT).  They tend to hate tummy time because they can't pick their head up much at all and what they can do is painful until the tort is worked out.  But tummy time is an important part of treating tort (modifications helped SO much here for us).  Once the muscles are relaxed/streatched enough you need focus on strengthening so they can catch up with gross motor (and they will).

Our experience is atypical.  Elaine had tort bad enough that she needed surgery to help relax it.  At just shy of 6 months she was just getting to not hate tummy time.  She was able to pick up her head and look around and I thought we were over the hump.  Then she went through the surgery which worked wonders on relaxing most of her neck that therapy alone wasn't helping, but it also killed all the strength we had built up.  At 6 1/2 months I was crushed for Elaine because I felt we were back to square one in so many aspects.  On her belly she could no longer pick her head up, and all tummy activities were back to screaming fests for a couple weeks.  When we resumed PT it was a faster process building strength up then before since her range of motion was far greater.  Looking at her now, you'd not know she was ever behind the curve with her gross motor.  Currently, in every measurable way Elaine is either on target or ahead on all her milestones so neither her severe plagio/tort nor the treatment thereof has effected her in any lasting negative fashion.

Hopefully this will help to give others a piece of mind.Elaine (twinA), plagio & tort, grad 2nd band 06/09On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 10:11 AM, Olivia Pleasants <appslivyp@...> wrote:

 

I am so glad you asked this question!  I am going through the exact same thing.  My third child is getting his doc band on Mon but we have been going to PT since he was about 4 mo and the plagio/bracio was first noted.    She is now concerned that he is gross motor delayed.  My husbands brother has aspbergers so I am super paranoid about that and look for every sign of something wrong.  I was also a preschool special ed teacher so I am on high alert naturally.  He will be six mo old on the 31st but he hasn't rolled over, barely tolerates tummy time but can sit up for about 15 seconds.  Hearing the word " delay " when attached to your child is very scary so I am glad to hear that this can go hand in hand but not necessarily mean global or serious concern. My other two were etremely outgoing, hit milestones

very early and had no issues whatsoever. My third is just different, very laid back and no real desire to be so mobile.  So the personality along with the probable tort I attribute to the delays. 

 

Olivia

[Guest guest]

Olivia,

I worried too about developmental delays. She also had tort and plagio/brachy. Laying on her back was her favorite thing to do. She would kick her heels against the floor one after the other, but that was it. She couldn't stay on her tummy for more than 20 seconds. It was hard.

In short, Maysa started rolling over she was 9 months old. She started crawling she was 11.5 months old and she didn't walk until she was 15 months old. Now, she runs almost as fast as her 4 yo sister.

I did the neck exercises myself at home with her and that took care of the tort. She hated it but we did it and it was over fairly quickly. Just before she started crawling, she got PT (I can't remember how often) and she worked with her on crawling, standing, walking, bending down, squatting, climbing up and climbing down. It went really well and I stopped worrying about it.

Leila,Maysa, 2 yo, DOC band Grad 5.26.09www.mymaysa.wordpress.com

From: Olivia Pleasants <appslivyp@...>Subject: Developmental delay questionPlagiocephaly Date: Friday, January 29, 2010, 10:11 AM

I am so glad you asked this question! I am going through the exact same thing. My third child is getting his doc band on Mon but we have been going to PT since he was about 4 mo and the plagio/bracio was first noted. She is now concerned that he is gross motor delayed. My husbands brother has aspbergers so I am super paranoid about that and look for every sign of something wrong. I was also a preschool special ed teacher so I am on high alert naturally. He will be six mo old on the 31st but he hasn't rolled over, barely tolerates tummy time but can sit up for about 15 seconds. Hearing the word "delay" when attached to your child is very scary so I am glad to hear that this can go hand in hand but not necessarily mean global or serious concern. My other two were etremely outgoing, hit milestones very early and had no issues whatsoever. My third is just different, very laid back and no real

desire to be so mobile. So the personality along with the probable tort I attribute to the delays.

Olivia