Torticollis + reflux

[Anonymous]

I am new here. My dd who is almost 4 mos old has reflux. The GI specialist has only prescribed zantac 1.5 ml 2x a day. She had been doing pretty good on it for the last two months. She is generally a happy baby as long as you remember her zantac on schedule doesn’t even mind her spit ups much. Then I realized she had a severe left head tilt. So we started exercises for torticollis not thinking of a relationship between the two even though I had heard of it before.

Well a week into the exercises she is definitely turning her head to the affected side more easily and holding it up a little straighter. Problem is she is cranky as heck. Arching like crazy and hating her carseat again, waking up after 30 min of sleep when normally she will nap for an hour and a half to 2 hours.

So my question is do you think the head tilt was making her reflux more comfortable and now that we are making her hold her head straight the zantac just isn’t enough? Does it stand to reason that if the reflux caused the head tilt and torticollis that straightening the head tilt makes the reflux restart again?

And if so what can I give her. Our GI and Pediatrician are terrible refuse to give me prevacid solutabs, no idea why, they wld rather her be in pain. Can I use prilosec capsules and sprinkle them on as soon as she starts cereal? I am desperate I want her head straight but I want my happy baby back too!

[hellbennt]

hi & welcome!
I have a LOT to say and most of it’s here, in a link called ‘groupie intro.’
it’s looong but TRULY will help you- read through it, refer back to it, scroll through it/skim through it. You’ll find yourself coming back to it!
https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853

the torticollis may just be caused by reflux pain. sometimes babies contort themselves to help ease the pain. if you PROPERLY medicate the baby, it might help w/ the torticollis. my son had this, but it was mild & we caught it soon and properly medicated him & it went away.

you CAN buy prevacid OTC (over the counter). I cannot tell you to do this.
However, you can research here, infantreflux.org and at http://www.marci-kids.com. From groupie intro, there’s a link called ‘Prevacid 101’ and this link will tell you all about PPIs (prevacid, prilosec, nexium, protonix) and also has links to tell you PROPER zantac dosing.

so glad you found us!
laura

[Anonymous]

Hi one of my twins developed torticollis and a flat spot on her head with reflux (she was also a preemie which cause things to be worse with muscle dev.).

we had her on 15 mg of prevacid and 2 ml of Zantac and still she was arching and tilting her head until we also got her into physical therapy. Her GI thought some of it was a learned response and since it happened when she was so young her back muscles became stronger than her front causing her to arch even when she wasn’t in pain.

Well now that we have her on meds and she works with physical therapy she is a lot happier not to say we still don’t have bad times but it is much better.

So I think the physical therapy probably helps but you also have to get them on the correct dosage of meds.

[Anonymous]

hello my dd also has torticollis which was caused by sleeping in her swing thanks to her reflux…. she is in pt 4xs a months and doing great. take him into a dr and talk to them about it. if gone untreated it can cause lasting problems such as vision problems

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