Kelm, that was probably me. Liam?s head was always turned to the left and tilted slightly upwards. It would hurt him if I turned him to the right or put him straight. He was beginning to develop a flattened area on the back of his head where he was always lying, but I think this is partly due to him being early and so having an even softer skull.
Meanwhile he was having colicky symptoms so I booked him into the osteopath for his colic having previously had good results with ds1&2. During his assessment I asked them to have a look at his head/neck. It turns out that they think that this might actually be causing his colic problems. They pointed out to me the ?side-bend? in his body caused by his twisted neck. I hadn?t really noticed this before, but sure enough when lying on his back he is shaped like a banana. This apparently puts pressure on particularly his diaphragm, but also his bowel and gullet, which in turn causes the symptoms I am reporting as colic ? difficulty in winding him, excess wind, bad pain as the wind travels through the bowel, excessive hiccups, being sick and positing a lot. So they feel if they fix his neck then the other problems should go away.
He has had 3 appts so far, and there has been an improvement. He can now turn to the right without pain and he will do so sometimes by his own volition, although he does still favour the left. The hiccups have gone and it is now much easier to bring his wind up. His pain and discomfort is mainly confined to the evenings now, whereas before it seemed pretty much constant. The sickness remains but then ds1 was a very sickly baby too, so I?m not too worried about that. And his side-bend is smaller now. We?ll be keeping up his appts as I really do think it is working. His gp has also booked him in for a series of massage appts. He's had a couple so far and he seems to enjoy it.
The osteopaths agree with dh?s hypothesis as to what has caused this. He reckons it was due to the cord being wrapped twice tightly around his neck, which was compounded by me losing my amniotic fluid about a week before he was born. This apparently would also explain why I had major decelerations on the foetal monitor, which led to my emergency section. It kind of all makes sense but who knows?
Incidentally, I have bought a pillow for Liam, which is supposed to minimise flattening of the head. I can?t remember where I saw it recommended ? it might have been on mn. Apparently all babies in Sweden use this pillow, and comes highly recommended by Swedish healthcare professionals. If you?re interested I?ll do a link to their website so you can read for yourself.
Sorry that was all so long and boring!
Mrs B ? I?m in Maidstone.
Hammer - am envious of your clever little girls on the potty. I'll try again in earnest next week I think.
Plp - still thinking of you and Cerys and the rest of the family. I hope she continues to be strong and recovers well. What a little star she is.
Thanks for the tips about my 'challenging' ds'. I'll keep at it. It's reassuring we're not the only ones going through this.