How to judge whether a three-month-old baby is torticollis?

When you find that your baby is lying flat, he always leans his head to the same side, and when he sits, he leans his head to one side. You find it difficult to turn his head and neck, so the baby may be torticollis! If you don't grasp the critical moment of treatment 6 months ago, head-face asymmetry will affect your appearance for a lifetime. Don't be careless! The following are 1 1 frequently asked questions about torticollis, so that your baby can avoid the threat of torticollis!

1, what is baby torticollis?

Torticollis, commonly known as "crooked neck", is a very common surgical disease in infants. This disease usually occurs in young children and has four symptoms:

(1) The head leans to one side and the chin faces the opposite shoulder;

(2) A lump appeared in the neck;

(3) The face size is asymmetrical;

(4) The neck movement is limited. These symptoms may appear at birth, or they may appear slowly later, and some symptoms may disappear without treatment.

2. What is the cause of torticollis?

There are many reasons for torticollis, such as abnormalities of muscles, bones and nerves, which will tilt the neck to one side. However, the most common torticollis in children is caused by the fibrosis of sternocleidomastoid muscle, the largest muscle in the neck. The sternocleidomastoid muscle is located on both sides of the neck. When the muscles on one side are fibrotic, the muscles on this side will become hard and short, thus tilting the head to one side and the chin to the other.

For example, the left torticollis is the fibrotic sternocleidomastoid muscle on its left side. At this time, you can touch a hard muscle block as hard as a bone on its left neck, and it will tilt its head to the left and its chin to the right. This phenomenon of muscle fibrosis has appeared as early as the fetal period. Due to the high proportion of pregnant women, there are cases of malposition or even breech delivery. Some parents misunderstand that it is because the obstetrician sprained the baby's neck during delivery. In fact, it is unfair to blame the doctors in obstetrics and gynecology, because according to pathological examination, the fibrotic muscles are all mature fibroblasts without any damage and bleeding.

Other causes of torticollis also exist, but they are rare in young children, including:

(1) Inflammation of the neck tissue, such as acute lymphadenitis, can also make the head tilt to one side due to swelling and pain;

(2) Sports injury, poor sleeping posture, etc. It may also cause muscle spasm on one side of the neck, making the neck movement asymmetric;

(3) Asymmetry of vision can also cause bowing;

(4) Nervous system diseases, such as cerebral palsy, may also cause abnormal neck muscle contraction. These reasons make the neck movement limited, and the symptoms are similar to torticollis, but they are not torticollis to be discussed in this paper.

3. What is sternocleidomastoid muscle?

The sternocleidomastoid muscle is the largest and thickest muscle in the neck, which is responsible for the movement of the head and neck in all directions. This muscle is left and right, starting from the convex bone behind the ear (called mastoid) and reaching the sternum and clavicle of the front neck, so it is called sternocleidomastoid muscle. If we turn our heads to one side, we can see or touch that muscle. If we look to the right, the left sternocleidomastoid muscle will tighten and harden. These muscles are soft when we don't exert ourselves.

4. Why is the neck muscle fibrotic?

The change of body tissue into fibrous tissue is called "fibrosis". Fibrous tissue is usually used by the body to repair injured parts. For example, scars are fibrous tissue. If normal tissues are fibrotic, problems will occur because of the loss of normal function. Fibrous tissue is hard, so there will be a lump after cervical muscle fibrosis. Although many people are studying it, the cause of cervical muscle fibrosis is still unknown. Some people speculate that it may be caused by vascular embolism or viral infection during muscle growth. Strangely, only the sternocleidomastoid muscle of torticollis can fibrosis, but other neck muscles can't.

5. How to judge that the baby may have torticollis?

The symptom of torticollis is head tilt. When lying flat, the baby tends to sleep on the same side; Turn your head to one side while sitting. Parents can try to attract their baby to look around, and the baby will find it difficult to turn his head and neck. Some children have torticollis in the womb, so their faces develop asymmetrically after birth. After careful examination, the neck often has a lump (66? ), the size is about 1 ~ 3 cm, as if there is a tumor on the neck! If it is not cured, the neck lump of older children will become a tight tendon.

6. How does the doctor diagnose torticollis?

Usually, the doctor will observe the baby's head and face development and palpate the neck with his hands. If there is obvious mass or muscle fibrosis in the neck, the diagnosis can be made, and usually no other diagnostic tools are needed. Children with torticollis symptoms but normal neck muscle examination may need to arrange some tests to find other reasons, such as X-ray and ultrasonic examination.

7. Is torticollis related to production?

Many children with torticollis bend their heads in the mother's womb, which leads to abnormal fetal position or dystocia. Obstetricians may have to make great efforts to deliver the baby with various forceps, and sometimes even have a caesarean section. If the baby born has torticollis, parents may misunderstand that the obstetrician injured the baby during childbirth, but in fact the cause and effect are reversed!

8. What is the effect of torticollis?

Fibrous muscle can't contract and relax normally. In addition to losing their functions, they will also restrict the activities of the neck and make the muscles on both sides develop asymmetrically. In addition, because sleeping on the same side all the time, the head and face will be pressed into left-right asymmetry. Because the baby's skull is still growing, there is still a chance to restore asymmetry six months ago, and it will be finalized after six months!

9. When is the best treatment?

Symmetry between face and head is an important indicator. The more asymmetry, the greater the influence of torticollis, and the more active early treatment is needed. Six months is the key moment of treatment, because after six months, the head-face asymmetry is not easy to recover, which is enough to affect the appearance of a lifetime. Don't be careless

10, the treatment of torticollis?

Children with torticollis should adopt different treatment methods according to different reasons:

① Congenital muscular torticollis. When the baby is found in the early stage, it is difficult to predict whether the lump will dissipate on its own. Parents can be instructed to stretch the sternocleidomastoid muscle by hand to make the neck tilt to the opposite side (that is, massage). You can also go to the hospital rehabilitation department for physical therapy. Some scholars advocate injecting hormones into local people. Children 1 ~ 4 years old are suitable for surgical release, but the effect of surgical release is poor over 5 years old, and facial asymmetry is not easy to correct.

② Cervical vertebra causes torticollis. Besides loosening sternocleidomastoid muscle, cervical deformity should be corrected.

③ subluxation or odontoid fracture between the first and second cervical vertebrae. Generally, only straight head traction is done to stabilize the vertebral body for 2 ~ 4 weeks, and most children recover well. Antibiotics should be added if there is inflammation. A small number of children who are ineffective in conservative treatment should consider surgical methods.

4 eye diseases, correct strabismus in time.

⑤ Habitual torticollis. After the above reasons are eliminated, the incorrect posture should be corrected, and it can be corrected automatically after a long time.

1 1, family correction of torticollis in children

① Use toys to attract the baby to turn his head in the opposite direction of deformity.

(2) when sleeping and feeding, take the posture opposite to deformity.

③ Hot compress torticollis with hot towel or hot water bottle for 30 minutes every day.

④ Give the baby 5 abnormal neck movements in the opposite direction every day, lasting 2 seconds each time, and repeat 10 ~ 20 times.

⑤ Knead the local lump. Let the baby lie on his side, with the affected side facing up and his back facing the performer. The performer pinches the local lump with thumb, middle finger and forefinger, kneading it from top to bottom along the direction of sternocleidomastoid muscle, and then kneading it repeatedly from bottom to top for 20 ~ 30 times, gradually increasing the finger strength for about 10 minute. When the manipulation and finger strength are appropriate, the lump will become soft, then hold the lump and move left and right along its vertical direction. 1 year is effective in the treatment of torticollis.

In addition, after a period of physical therapy is still ineffective, the neck muscles still have obvious sclerosis after 1 year, and surgery is also needed. Surgery is usually to cut the hardened muscle so that it no longer interferes with movement. Most of the neck can resume normal activities after operation, and the earlier the operation, the better the effect. If the operation is too late, besides head and face deformation, some rehabilitation after operation is needed to achieve better results. The probability of postoperative recurrence is 5? Below.

12 is the operation dangerous?

The operation itself is quite simple, just cutting or partially removing the fibrotic muscle. The little patient only needs to stay for one night and can be discharged the next day. Basically, patients with heart disease under one year old recover quickly after surgery, and their heads can be turned immediately without special treatment. Within a few months, there will be no head skew, and the deformation of the face and head will completely return to normal. If the operation is delayed very late, the back of the operation will still be habitually skewed. At this time, physical therapy and collar correction are needed to fix the head in the correct position. However, the deformation of the head and cheeks sometimes cannot return to normal, so parents should never ignore it, so as not to regret it for life because of the slow treatment.

Torticollis is a common disease in children, which is usually not difficult to diagnose and treat. The most important thing is to understand the influence of this disease on the development of head and face, what treatment method and when to treat it are related to the development of head and face. If it is handled too late or in the wrong way, it will have irreversible effects.