We have some work to do

We had Finn's Physical and Occupational Therapy appointments this afternoon. The PT appt was first. Within about two minutes of being in the room, the therapist could tell that Finn has Torticollis. This is what we were concerned about since he was always looking only to the right and tilting his head to the left. Torticollis is a tightening of the muscle that connects behind your ear to your collarbone and is usually found in very large babies or with twins (due to the lack of space in utero). Since that obviously wasn't the case with Finn, she believes is was due to his hospitalization. Meaning the nurses always cared for him and checked on him from the right side of his incubator or crib. I guess that makes sense. There are two good things about this: 1. It is a medium case, not severe, but not mild either. and 2. we are treating it very early and should be "easy" to correct. So, Jim and I have exercises to do that should help and Finn will have weekly PT appointments until it is corrected.

Until the torticollis is corrected, she won't be able to assess him on where he is with such things as his gross motor skills because so much depends on the baby's ability to hold his head midline, which Finn obviously doesn't do. As far as his gross motor skills, he is behind on some of them. We need to work on lying on his side (to promote rolling over), propping him up to help lift his head and elevating his feet to promote leg kicking. And then, once we have a plan for developing his gross motor skills, we will see if he needs OT, which works more with fine motor skills.

I'm not exactly happy with what we found out, but I am happy it is very treatable and Finn should have no long term affects. The only thing that may need to be corrected is the shape of his head. He has a flat spot on the back of the right side of his head...not excessively noticeable, but it is there. If it continues to worsen, he would need to have a helmet made that would reshape his skull. We'll cross that bridge if/when we have to. The physical therapist made me feel good because she pointed out after giving birth to a 25 weeker, if the only thing we have to "deal" with are some developmental delays, but otherwise he is a very healthy baby, we are very lucky. And we both feel that way and are more than willing to help Finn catch up developmentally. Plus, the exercises they give us will just turn into how we play with him, so that isn't a bad thing.