Malpositions

Especially because of the still incomplete growth, children can often develop bad postures. Sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time or the wrong sitting posture at school, during homework and in general, an unfavorable sitting position often leads to muscular tension and shortening. This can be explained by the fact that one muscle is attached to two different bones.

If the muscle shortens or contracts due to tension, the bones are also pulled closer together, resulting in curvature of the spine or other bad posture. If the children do nothing to compensate for these malpositions, or if the tensions are already so painful that the children can only move with restrictions, it is important to get professional help to prevent chronic tensions and long-term malpositions in adulthood. In physiotherapy, the children get to know their bodies better and perform playful exercises to counteract the bad posture.

The cooperation of the parents in the therapy is also important so that they can keep an eye on the children at home and correct bad posture if necessary. Are you interested in this topic? Then please read the following articles:

Sitting correctly
Back-friendly lifting and carrying
Stretching exercises
Back school
Posture school

Wryneck

Torticollis, as the torticollis is called in technical terminology, occurs relatively frequently, especially in infants and toddlers. A torticollis is a congenital or acquired malposition, which manifests itself by the characteristic tilting of the neck. The malposition restricts the freedom of movement of the neck and the child usually develops a false position to compensate for the neck’s misalignment.

Responsible for the wryneck is a shortened head–neck muscle at the front of the neck. The muscle shortens because connective tissue cells replace intact muscle cells, thus making the muscle much smaller.The exact causes for the development of a torticollis are unknown, but especially in newborns researchers assume that an unfavorable position in the uterus or injuries of the musculature during the birth process are responsible for the development of a torticollis. When a torticollis develops in older children, it can be caused by muscular imbalance, lack of exercise or other underlying diseases.

The diagnosis of torticollis is usually directly visible to the doctor, but an x-ray can be helpful to check and assess the extent of the problem. It is important to treat torticollis in children as early as possible to avoid secondary diseases and problems during development. A conservative therapy is preferred. The therapy can include various positioning techniques, stretching exercises and physiotherapy. The following articles deal with a similar topic:

Wryneck
Physiotherapy for a child with a torticollis