How to correct a crooked neck

The phenomenon of crooked neck is most likely to occur in infants and young children. Because the necks of children at this stage are not fully formed, poor holding, sleeping, and sitting postures can cause crooked necks. If a crooked neck occurs, it must be corrected in time. Some severe crooked necks can even cause lifelong effects on children. So, how to correct a crooked neck?

Most cases of torticollis in children are acquired habitual torticollis, which means that after the child is born, due to various reasons, the child's neck gradually and habitually deviates to one side. These reasons include incorrect posture when feeding, or habitually feeding with one nipple; some are habitually holding the baby on the right or left side; some children often tilt their heads to one side when sleeping, etc. After understanding the causes of torticollis, we will have the method to correct it.

First of all, you need to change the feeding posture, adhere to the correct feeding posture of "three points in a straight line" for the child's body, and rotate the nipple left and right from time to time for feeding. If necessary, you can go too far and feed more often on the side opposite to the side where the baby is habitually fed. For example, if the child is accustomed to sucking from the right nipple, we will temporarily feed more from the left nipple. By analogy, when holding a child, you should also pay attention to changing your previous posture. If you are a parent who is used to holding the child more on the right side, you should now intentionally change to holding the child more on the left side. This is to correct the child's head tilt problem.

Secondly, after the baby is one month old and can follow his gaze, we should stand on the opposite side of the baby's tilted head and tease the baby. For example, if a child's head habitually tilts to the right, then parents, elderly people and other family members should intentionally stand on the child's left side, talk to the child, use various toys with sounds to attract the child's eyes and ears, and lead the child to turn his head to the left.

The most difficult thing to do is to change the child's sleeping position. We recommend using a corrective pillow to limit the child's head from sleeping to the left or right, and try to keep the child's head in a neutral position when sleeping, but the effect of this method is often not ideal. Why is this? Because some children habitually sleep with their heads tilted to one side, their heads will become flat over time. In this way, when the child lies down, the head will naturally lean towards the flat head area. In turn, the flat head aggravates the child's head tilt. We call this the "torticollis-flat head sequence," where the child has both torticollis and flat head. Once a child has a flat head, it is indeed difficult to stabilize the child's head using only a corrective pillow.

When facing children with torticollis and flat head, I personally suggest that you try letting the child sleep on his side or stomach. For example, if the child's head tilts to the left, you can let the child sleep on his right side; you can also let the child sleep on his stomach with his head tilted to the right. When your child sleeps on his or her stomach, be sure the mattress is not too soft so as not to cover the child's mouth and nose.

To correct a child’s torticollis, you can also give the child a neck massage. Of course, how to massage your child must be done under the guidance of a masseur. Never massage randomly.

Finally, I will introduce a simple and practical neck stretching method, which parents may want to try at home. Have your child lie on his or her back with the shoulders slightly elevated, or with the head resting on the edge of the bed so that the child's head naturally falls back. At this time, you, the parent, can hold the child's head with both hands to keep the child's head in a neutral position. The backward position of the head will naturally exert a gravity pulling effect on the neck muscles on the affected side. As long as the child does not cry or make a fuss, the stretching time can be slowly increased from a few minutes. In order to enhance the effect, you can also do appropriate massage on the affected side of the neck while stretching. Of course, the massage techniques need to be guided by a professional masseur.