head tilt at 4.5mo - should i be concerned?

[NumptyMum]

I've noticed that DD tilts her head to one side - I mentioned it to health visiting nurse and she said I could phone local physio service for self-referral. However when I did, they said they only treat adults & I'd need to go to doctor to get a referral to the local children's hospital. Somehow doing this seems more extreme...

So - what would you do? Go to docs and see what they say and if they say all's fine, leave it at that? Anyone else had LO with head tilting like this (it makes her look v 'cute/winsome' if that makes sense, just tipped over to one side a bit)?

[bigcar]

if you go to your gp they should be able to refer to the paediatric physio team, they will probably be based at the local childrens hospital which is probably what the person you spoke to meant, just didn't explain it well.

[Iamcountingto3]

Dd had this - it was diagnosed as torticollis (tight neck muscle) by a consultant that we saw regarding another issue, and we had a course of physio.

I wouldn't ignore it, as it can create issues later down the line if not corrected, and is reasonable straight forwards to correct at this age. HTH

[Pinkjenny]

Ds had this too. It went when he started sitting up and holding his head up, so we were never referred over it, and he is fine now. I hadn't thought about it in ages until I saw your thread!

[NumptyMum]

Thanks for your replies - it just seems more extreme to seek a referral to the children's hospital physios when I'm not sure if it's a concern or not! However I've now made an appointment for DD to see the GP next Monday and will take it from there...

Thanks again .

[BigGsmom]

We noticed the same thing when DS1 was about 3 months. It was diagnosed as torticollis (neck muscles in spasm) from a difficult labour (forceps).

It's not extreme to ask for a referral at all - in our case it was quite severe and as someone has already mentioned it led to further problems.

We had to do physio on him several times a day until he was 8 months old. Unfortunately because he couldn't turn his head at all to one side, his head became severely flattened on the side that he lay on all the time. He ended up developing a condition called plagiocephaly and is now (at 17 months) wearing an orthotic helmet to correct that.

Good luck