Baby B

*sigh*

November 20, 2009 at 12:09 am

Let’s start with the good news.

The good news is that Sylvie has been sitting up independently for several minutes at a time lately. She’s not even all that tippy (although I still hover over her like a hawk).  Go, baby, go!

The not-so-good news is that, now that she is sitting up more, I’ve started noticing this:

That’s right, there’s a tilt to her neck. Unfortunately, this is not just the position she happened to be in for this photograph. It seems to be that way all of the time. I even tried to tilt her the other way, to straighten it out, and she fought me and complained as though it hurt. As she sat the other day, I tried doing some tests by presenting her shaker egg (a perennial favorite) to her from different vantage points, and I realized that she struggles with looking to the extreme right, as well as up and left at the same time. When she does the latter, I can actually see the muscle in her neck bulging out a bit and I can tell she’s really struggling. She actually often chose to simply follow the toy with her eyes when it was presented from either of those positions, even though she clearly wanted to look at it. Poor baby girl! Between her poor little ears, the shape of her head, and now this…she must have been in some kind of crazy position in utero. Either that, or our arduous labor and three hours of pushing did a number on her.

Anyhow, I’m kicking myself and wondering how the hell I missed this newest concern for over 5 months. And, more frustratingly, how did her pediatrician and the physical therapist (who had seen her at 4 months when we suspected _this very thing_) miss it and say she was just fine? After noticing it this past week and really watching her and becoming more sure that I was right, I called and demanded that the PT re-check her. Lo and behold, she admitted that Sylvie does indeed have torticollis. However, she downplayed it by continually saying how she was a “mild case” and by giving extreme examples of children with whom she had worked. Um, hello? Is that supposed to be helpful? I don’t care if it’s the mildest “case” you’ve ever seen, the point is that there is a problem and it needs to be dealt with. And it shouldn’t have been missed by multiple professionals the first time around!

I have very little faith in the people involved in her pediatric care right now, can you tell? The PT briefly went over some exercises we could do at home (while Sylvie fussed and I half-listened), and said “see you in 3 weeks.” Great, so 3 more weeks can go by with no real intervention? And her pediatrician hasn’t even been in her office for over a week, so it’s not like I can call her. So, I’ve decided to take matters more into my own hands. Tomorrow we have a chiropractic appointment. A friend said that it did wonders for her son who had torticollis (and was diagnosed within weeks of his birth – imagine that). I don’t know if that’s the best route to take, but it’s amazingly covered by our insurance, so I will definitely give it a go. I’m done putting all of my faith in people who only see her for brief visits every few weeks or months and seem to miss or downplay all of the red flags. I’m done caring about coming across as a neurotic and overprotective first-time mama. I’m going to trust my instincts and fight to get whatever is necessary for my darling baby girl to grow and thrive and be the best she can be. I’m busting out my inner lioness, and I’m not going to back down and defer if someone tries to minimize my concerns. I just hope we’re not too late on this one.

By phillygil | Posted in Uncategorized