Attitude Adjustment?

When I was learning to fly fixed wing aircraft as a teenager, I remember being taught about the plane's attitude. The attitude is how level to the horizon the plane's wings are during flight.

Now I have a child with unlevel wings, I guess you could say. Colt has always had an adorable head tilt, see pictures below. It has made for the cutest of baby photos, I think.

Todd first noticed the head tilt and I brought it up to the pediatrician at Colt's 9 month check-up. The pediatrician acted thrilled to have a non-routine baby check in progress! The look of discovery in the doctor's eyes was fun to watch, even though it involved the well-being of my son. The doctor noted that it could be due to his eyesight, he may have to tilt his head to make his vision better. That didn't seem to make sense to me, but he is the pediatrician and I let him know that I would be talking with the pediatric ophthalmologist at MaKenna's next appointment. That is such a blessing to have a MaKenna around, we visit most specialist doctors at least once a year. So we know them and they know our family.

We actually had a physical therapist see Colt in June 2011 for torticollis, the scientific name for head tilt. She recommended some exercises for Colt, but they didn't seem to work for him. That is when we thought there might be something more than just a gross body muscle imbalance that caused his head tilt. Plus, his tilt wasn't as much as some of the photos you can find online of kids with that condition. We have had Colt adjusted by two chiropractors as well. Again, no real difference in his day to day head "attitude".

So at the next appointment for MaKenna with the ophthalmologist, he checked Colt out as well. He recommended that Colt be looked at again at MaKenna's next appointment. We did that too and that is when it was recommended that Colt have his own appointment. At Colt's appointment, Colt's eyes were dilated and the doctor could see areas of underdevelopment. These will have to be researched if and when there is an eye operation for Colt. The main question I had for the eye surgeon was could Colt's late walking be due to his eyes and his balance? The surgeon said it probably was and wanted to weaken Colt's strong eye muscles so the weak eye muscles could be balanced. Patching will not work on this issue. We have plenty of patches left over from when MaKenna was patched in December 2009, for a month. Colt didn't mind wearing some of the patching.

So I started to ask our network of parents from our Down Syndrome support group to "see" which eye doctors they have been to and who they recommend. We had a recommendation to "see" a behavioral optometrist in Idaho Falls. The pediatrician knew of her but wasn't sure of her treatment ideas. The occupational therapist knew of her and highly recommended her.

I was impressed with the optometrist, she had all three of my kids on the floor playing. She assessed them while they were working at play. Brilliant. She told us that if Colt was her grandson, she would not recommend eye surgery. She would recommend an occupational therapist as he often sits in a posture with his legs shaped like a "W" when viewed from above. This indicates some reflex integration issues.

We have started occupational therapy for Colt based on some test scores done in Fall 2011 by the early intervention staff here at our house. He didn't qualify for physical therapy due to his late walking, but he did qualify for occupational therapy. So we have a therapist visit once a week here at home for Colt. I expect him to graduate from the program, unlike MaKenna who graduated because she turned 3 and moved into the school system due to age.

I have been doing some reflex integration exercises with Colt, and he seems to respond by sitting better. Only problem is consistency on my part. And I did get some Vitamin E capsules from the health store based on MaKenna's acupuncturist's suggestion. Again, consistency to administer them to him! How come I know what to do and don't get it done?!!?

Colt is still not walking and it could be from his eyes. Tilting his head allows him to see only one image of his surroundings, or so the eye doctor believes. With this issue you can "see" why he wouldn't be walking yet, if he can't figure out his surroundings his balance could be off. The therapist has helped make recommendations about using his shoes more for support, showing him how to walk along the wall, reinforcing using a treadmill to help him walk (which we used for MaKenna). Again, our experiences with MaKenna have helped us on this journey immensely. Praise God for MaKenna!

One of the things that I have been thinking about is the general issues with each of my kids. MaKenna has issues with her ears, so far. Zane has issues with his teeth, so far. And now Colt has eye issues it appears. It would be nice to have a repeat in there for my sanity sake, but it is amazing how different we all are, including these three blessings of mine.

Our next step is to get a second opinion from a pediatric ophthalmologist in Salt Lake City. We had an appointment set for tomorrow morning, however due to the imminent snow storm and icy roads, we changed the appointment to March during Spring Break. We should have a blizzard by then! The imminent snow is drizzling down in the form of rain right now. But the roads would not have been fun to drive on, that is for sure. I do not feel comfortable with getting a strong muscle in his eye cut. That seems so drastic. If you ask a surgeon if surgery is an option, the odds are he will say "yes," right?

Colt continues to progress in weight (he has been known to be on the low sides of all the growth charts, except head growth--over 98%!) and he does continue to put his best foot forward so to speak. He is the best crawler we have ever had. Such a beautiful motion and so fast. So now it is a patience learning endeavor for us to wait for him on his time to walk. 18 months is the deadline to walk and he is a month from that. I don't have a countdown clock going yet for that, might put that on my to-do list! I cannot wait to see how this turns out. One thing is for sure, he won't be crawling to high school, right Colt?!