For a while, it looked as if we were going to exit out of the Montgomery County Infants & Toddlers Program (MCITP) since there was nothing more that our physical therapist could do for Josiah. He still has a slight left tilt, but other than that, is perfectly fine. After speaking to some physical therapists at Children's Hospital, we had hopes that Josiah would eventually grow out of it, since there wasn't much more we could do for him. Just recently, the county re-did their boundaries for their offices because of the opening of a new office (don't remember where it is). So since we were going to lose our current physical therapist with the new change, and there wasn't much else to be done for Josiah, we were planning on exiting the program soon. However, the new physical therapist who was to be assigned to us said that she has been using some new techniques that has had some promising results, which may help Josiah. So we decided to meet with her to discuss it further.
What she shared was actually very counter-intuitive to what we had learned about torticollis. She is an older woman with a lot of experience, and she said that with almost every case of torticollis she had worked with, the children all ended up having great range of motion in their necks from the stretches and exercises, but not the function. In other words, the children all had the ability to not tilt, but were still doing so out of habit. What's difficult is that as the child gets older, the harder it is to do the neck stretches because they all end up resisting it. It's extremely uncomfortable for them. This was exactly the case with Josiah. When we were still doing the neck exercises, it was like having a wrestling match with him... a lot of fussing and sometimes crying. The worst part of it is that he has to be relaxed to do the stretches properly. If he's resisting or pushing back, then he's actually strengthening the part we don't want strengthened. Josiah has full range of motion, but just tilts out of habit. So it was interesting to hear what the physical therapist was saying because she was totally describing Josiah.
The new techniques she has been using are called Total Motion Release. And they have nothing to do with neck stretches (even more interesting to me). She did a series of 7 different stretches all on the rest of his body and told us different areas that were tighter than others. It's possible that with torticollis, certain parts of the body get tighter to compensate for the tilt. The stretches are unique in that they emphasize the tilt. The idea is that if you stretch into the tight areas, it'll help the body release and loosen the tight areas so the neck and body can correct itself. (I know... sounds kinda whack.) Some other exercises she had told me to do with Josiah are the exact opposite of what we had been taught by the other physical therapists, which is so odd to me... that these techniques are so counter to what most other physical therapists are doing. Our physical therapist said the research on the Total Motion Release is relatively new and when she first heard about it, she thought it was "hocus pocus." =) But after working so long with kids who had torticollis and seeing them gain full range of motion without the function, she decided to give it a try since there was nothing else that could be done for them. And she said the results she has had have been amazing, and the best part is that the children tolerate these stretches so much better because they have nothing to do with the neck.
Bill & I figure it's worth a try. It can't make Josiah's neck worse... especially since he already has full range of motion. It's just a matter of strengthening his neck to function like it has full range. So I guess we're gonna give this mumbo jumbo a shot. =)
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