For those of you who aren't aware of my son's problem, he has what they call torticollis. He has had this ever since he was born, but we were only made aware of this problem when Ethan was about 3 months old. If you who don't know what this is here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: " Birth trauma or intrauterine malposition is considered to cause damage to the
sternocleidomastoid muscle (the side muscle) in the neck. This results in a shortening or excessive contraction of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, often with limited range of motion in both rotation and lateral bending. The head is typically tilted in lateral bending toward the affected muscle and rotated toward the opposite side." Basically, it's a weak neck ( at least on one side). The doctors said that Ethan was so scrunched inside me that he never developed the muscles on the one side of his neck and that the birth process forced his head and neck to be straight which in turned ripped those weak muscles.. ouch!
We have been going to the physical therapists, doing strengthening exercises, and stretches with Ethan for months now trying to correct the problem and have had no such luck! So two weeks ago the doctors said that they were going to go to more "extreme" measures now and made this neck brace ( or T.O.T collar) to help him develop those weak side muscles. He is suppose to wear it whenever he is awake during the day. He does not particularly enjoy wearing this contraption but hopefully it will fix the problem. However, if it doesn't, the doctors say that surgery will be our next option.. yikes! Here are some pictures of our poor little guy with his collar on...
PS.. Ethan is 7 1/2 months now and is basically crawling (well, in between an army crawl and a normal crawl) everywhere! He definitely get where he wants to go! He is also waving bye-bye! I'll post some videos tomm. hopefully.


Doesn't he just look so sad and pitiful!?