Baby Physiotherapy

Today we had our first appointment of physiotherapy today for Sadie. This is probably news to many of you as I haven't talked about it to a lot of people. It was partly due to feeling tremendously guilty about her having to even do it (even though its nothing we could have prevented). So I shall explain whats wrong and everything.

When Sadie was little, we noticed that she favored looking to the right. I read about it and all the books were saying it was normal, so when I mentioned it to the doctor when she was little, the doctor said it was normal and to stack her toys on the left side. I did that and got her to feed facing the left, but a few more months went by and she still favored her right side. So much so that her head was a little flat on that side. At her 4 month appointment, I brought it up again and told the doctor her head was flat on one side and when she looked at her, she realized that Sadie also tilts her head when shes resting on her back. We got referred to Childrens Hospital for Physiotherapy.

We got up bright and early for our group appointment today (3 other families were there). Every baby was assessed individually and then we learned about the neck muscles and how her one side is weak and she can only turn to face the left 50% - 70% of what is normal. Her condition is called Torticollis. So we sat and learned about how to hold her so that she corrects her neck issues. Sadie was so good the entire time, she was smiling at the physiotherapists and making cute noises. Thankfully we don't have to do any stretching. They did some stretching to show how far the neck is supposed to go to the side, and while its not painful to see it done, its the creepiest thing to watch. Babies necks are amazing. Sadie was not impressed as she was not in control. She screamed louder than all the other babies. It also didn't help that she was up earlier than usual and was super tired.

The other thing we talked about with the physiotherapist was her flat head spot. Our doctor didn't refer us to the specialist on that, but she mentioned that if we wanted to see a specialist about it just in case, its best to do it now while the window of opportunity to correct it is open. This window is pretty small. We got an appointment for January for her pending a referral from our doctor. This would be to see if she needs any type of corrective helmet thing. (helmets are only covered by extended health. We gotta now see if Sadie is covered by Tony's student extended health as a dependent. The physiotherapist starting saying the price of the helmets cause we were curious and said "3.." I was thinking, ok 300 isn't bad, "$3000"...my jaw dropped.

Sooo that was our morning. Sadie was good all day. Her smiles put all the other babies to shame in my opinion. She also didn't cry at the strange lady like the other ones, she smiled and made cute noises. I was proud of how well she did. We have a monthly appointment to see how shes doing after that.

So all in all, it was an interesting day. We were told that its generally caused by babys position in birth and whether it was a complicated birth or they had to use things like forceps or vacuums to get them out. Our baby was stuck for a long time and that, or how they got her out could have caused this issue. Poor gal. So even though I shouldn't feel guilty, the feeling still lingers.

I got home and Tony went to study (he has 2 mid terms and homework this week) and I freaked out at him for leaving his coat on the couch. It was soaking wet on the couch. I shouldn't have freaked out that bad. I cried. I felt horrible. I am feeling a bit better now. Cuddling the small girl helped.

Sticking out her tongue at me. Mostly because her teeth were bugging her that day. So far there is one bottom tooth peaking now and another one at the top coming down.