Wow, that is a mouthful of a title… I tried to come up with something a little more fun but my sleep deprived brain just couldn’t think of anything. If you watch the video I talk about noticing some asymmetries and preferences with my little one. Most people might not even notice it, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about it and point out what I was noticing because if these can get caught really early on, they don’t become a problem. It’s when they don’t get noticed that they can become challenging.
So you will see that my little one has a preference for a left side bend, all through his body. He has had this since the very beginning (I know because I went back and looked at pictures and videos I had of him). He started out with all of his wake up stretches just preferring to stretch to the left. Well, this preference has become a habit and now he is slightly asymmetrical when he is at rest and when he activates his muscles the left turn on way easier than the right.
So, what do I do? Well I work on holding him so that he has to try to activate his right side more and I also try not to let him be positioned where he is leaning more to the left. And if he does do this, I reposition him or straighten him out. I try to show some examples of things I do in the video as well as how I noticed these preferences.
I also continue to work on carrying him on both sides of my body, switching which side I feed him on, switching the direction he is facing in his crib, and any other area that I can find to make sure I am giving him opportunities to go to both sides.
If I didn’t address this, there is a possibility his preference could lead to muscle tightness which would make it a little harder for him to hit his motor milestones as well as increase his chance of torticollis (tight neck) and plagiocephaly (flat head). Yes, I know most people wouldn’t notice these things but in my experience, addressing them before they become a problem is a lot easier and faster than waiting until there is a problem.
Hopefully this will just help you to keep an eye out for positional and movement preferences and asymmetries so you can make some easy adjustments in your routine. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions!
