How to correct a baby's crooked neck

A baby's neck is different from that of an adult and requires a development process. However, due to the influence of feeding, sleeping position and the usual way of holding the baby, the baby's neck may grow crooked. Because the child's neck is constantly developing, once it grows crooked, it needs to be corrected in time. After it is fixed, the difficulty of correction will be greatly increased. So, how to correct a baby's crooked neck?

Habitual head tilt

Cause: Improper feeding and sleeping posture. After the baby is born, the mother feeds the baby in the same posture for a long time or gets used to a certain sleeping posture, which forms a habit of tilting the head over a long period of time.

Countermeasures:

(1) Change the baby's sleeping position so that the baby sleeps in the opposite direction of the head. If the baby does not cooperate, you can put a small rice pillow or sandbag on the side where the head is tilted to prevent the baby's head from tilting to one side, or use a shaping pillow to correct it. If the baby likes to sleep on one side close to the mother, the mother can also sleep in the opposite direction of the baby's head tilt to help correct it.

(2) Change the breastfeeding posture. When breastfeeding, the mother should try to keep the side of the head close to the mother's body so that the neck muscles on the opposite side can be stretched and corrected.

(3) Local hot compress: You can use a warm towel to apply heat to the neck muscles on the side of the head to promote blood circulation. But the baby's skin is delicate, so the temperature should be slightly higher than the skin temperature, but not too high to avoid scalding the baby.

(4) Neck exercises: Let your baby do the exercises in the opposite direction of head tilt 5 times a day, hold each time for 2 seconds, and repeat 10 to 20 times. You can also use some toys to attract your baby to turn his head in the opposite direction of the head tilt, which will help improve the baby's head tilt.

torticollis

reason:

There are sternocleidomastoid muscles on both sides of the human neck, which play an important role in neck movement. The fetus continues to grow in the uterus, and the space in the uterus is small. In order to adapt to the space in the uterus, the baby's neck will gradually twist due to space limitations. In addition, some babies have abnormal fetal positions, and their heads tend to be biased towards the shorter side of the neck after birth. Or during the delivery process, the baby's neck muscles are damaged due to certain factors, such as breech birth, cesarean section, and forceps traction, which leads to poor blood circulation in the sternocleidomastoid muscle on one side, causing the neck to tilt to one side.

Countermeasures:

If your baby is diagnosed with torticollis, do not rely solely on treating the habitual head tilt to correct it. Be sure to go to the hospital for regular massage treatment. If the baby's head tilt is not effectively treated with massage after he is one year old, surgical correction can be considered.

Notice:

(1) The best age for treating torticollis is within 6 months of age, and preferably not more than 12 months. The younger the age, the better the effect.

(2) In addition to head tilt, babies with torticollis usually have a lump on their neck, cry in pain when their neck is massaged, have restricted neck movement, and have asymmetry on the left and right sides of their face. Head tilt caused by improper feeding or sleeping posture does not have these phenomena, so parents should be careful to distinguish them.