the case of the big head

Today Levi had a physiotherapy assessment with a private pediatric physiotherapist.  I booked this appointment after my growing concern that Levi was following in Asher's footsteps with being a late crawler and walker (he's 11.5 months and not even close to doing either).  Because of this concern, for the past couple of months I've been on and off doing Asher's old physio exercises with Levi.  Turns out that Levi does have some issues, but they're not with his pelvis like Asher's were.  Levi has a rockin' pelvis (credit to me for all those pelvic exercises I've been putting him through)!

But what Levi does have is this: low muscle tone and a big head.  His low muscle tone - although not officially hypotonia, a more serious condition - just means that his muscles are more floppy than normal.  The physiotherapist compared muscles to a spring, and said that someone with low muscle tone would have a loose/stretched spring kind of muscle rather than a normal slinky type spring muscles.  His muscles still work, and they're still there, but they're loose and relaxed, which is obviously a hindrance.  This has been present since birth - rewind and see the pattern with his difficulty stabilizing his blood sugars at birth and his feeding issues which required us to do exercises on his lips to strengthen those muscles.

Levi also has a big head, which we have known for a while now (98th percentile compared to the rest of his body which is around 50th to 75th percentile).  Levi has compensated for his big head by using his shoulders to support his head, which has meant that he cannot use his shoulders and arms properly to help him move.  This especially gets in the way of his transitional movements - getting from one position to another, laying to sitting for example.  Levi has no transitional movements, which I have known.

So combine low muscle tone with a big head and what you have is this guy:

Cute and adorable and still my perfect baby.  He just happens to be a perfect baby who needs a bit of physiotherapy to help him to get moving.

So far, he doesn't like it.

And Connie, our awesome physiotherapist, gave me a gift today too.  She reassured me over and over again that this is purely a genetic issue and has nothing to do with my parenting or Levi's learning ability.  Since both boys have had tonality issues, there is a genetic component coming into play for sure (I was a late walker - 18 months - maybe that's where it comes from?).  In any case, this is something that we can move past for sure, and likely without any further issues.  This really is just how we make babies.

So for now the physio exercises will focus on strengthening Levi's neck muscles so they can do the work of holding up his big head instead of him engaging his shoulder muscles to do that.  Although he really does not like the exercises so far, I'm hoping that his increased mobility will be an encourager for him.

Oh, and the big head, that's a Lawson trait for sure.  In fact, when Greg crawled as a baby he apparently dragged his head on the ground because it was too big, so I can definitely blame Greg for this one! :P