torticollis is generally an tilting of the head in one direction it can be a slight tilt or a complete ear to shoulder tilt.



torticollis found most commonly in infants is usally congenital muscular torticollis which is caused by damage or a shortening of a muscle in the neck, the most common causes are inutero postioning, inutero constraint, traumatic birth, multiples, and low amniotic fluid.

torticollis has become more prevalent in recent years because of the push of the back to sleep campaign making ppl fearful of putting their
babies on their tummys, without tummy time the neck and back muscle do not get properly stretched.try and make sure your baby gets atleast
an hour of tummy time a day they wont like it at first but they will get used to it, even let them sleep on their tummy if they will with
supervision of course (we let simon sleep on his tummy on the living room floor so we could keep an eye on him).

treatment of torticollis consists of stretches for the the neck your doctor should give you a copy of them at your first visit
http://www.pedisurg.com/PtEduc/Torticollis.ht ... these stretches maybe all that it takes for mild cases, if the stretches are not improving neck
movement your doctor will probably refer you to a physical therapist and have you get xrays taken to make sure its just the muscle.

at physical therapy they will show you different stretches and tricks on how to do them without to much of a fight, your main goal at this point
is to keep up the stretches at home, try and keep the head straight as much as possible ( small towels, wash clothes foam between shoulder 
and ear), move stuff around so they have to turn their head to look at things (tilt to the left you want stuff on the left side its easy for them
to turn their head to the right).

if the torticollis hasnt improved greatly after going to pt for awhile they may recommend a TOT collar to keep their head straight but i have
only heard of a few ppl that have used one. our pt had us go to an orthopedic surgeon to see if he wanted to do botox to numb the
muscle so the other ones could stregthen, or surgery to lengthen the muscle, by the time we got it he had greatly improved and just
said to keep up the stretches.

most ppl recommend staying in pt till they can walk well or going back to pt once they start trying to walk since often times they will revert
back to tilting.

simon was in pt 1 hour a week for 6 months his case was pretty severe and caused some facial assemetries which are mainly gone now, he
revert when he started walking like i was afraid of but will still tilt sometimes when he is tired, doesnt feel good or is very upset.
his toricollis was caused by being head down the last 4 month in the womb.

if you have any questions feel free to ask and i will ansewer them the best i can.

more info:
http://www.torticolliskids.org/ ...
http://www.drhull.com/EncyMaster/T/torticolli ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torticollis ...
http://www.infant-torticollis.org/ ... 

I'm new here, but I saw your header, "What is torticollis". My 3 year old was diagnosed at 6 mos. old and we've really struggled with it. Is that your son in the picture? Are things going well for you all? It can be really frustrating, can't it? PT did not resolve all my daughter's issues and here within the past year we began seeing an osteopath who specializes in cranio-saccral manipulations and we have been BLOWN AWAY at the improvement. I'm generally not that into alternative medicine or treatments, but on the advice of our pediatrician we saw this guy and Sophie's toticollis is nearly undetectable.

Just thought I'd share. I've never actually come in contact with any one else who has dealt with this issue. Thanks for the info. I hope all is going well.

yup thats him its pretty much resolved now he just sometimes tilts when tired or angery but thats it. our doctor noticed it at his 1 month check up so we got a pretty early jump on it but the 6 months of pt were a real drag.