What should I do about my child’s squint?

  It is very common for infants to have a tilted neck, but not all cases of “tilted head” can be relieved naturally. There are different ways to deal with different cases. Therefore, it is important for parents to distinguish the types of infant squint.  I. Physiological squint (habitual squint) If a baby has a squint in the first 3 months of life, it is often a physiological squint. This is because the child does not have enough strength in the neck after lifting the head and the head is relatively heavy. In this case, parents need to pay attention to correcting the baby’s posture and exercising the strength of the baby’s neck muscles. Pay attention to vitamin D supplementation and pay attention to the calcium situation.  Pathological oblique neck 1. Myotonic oblique neck (congenital oblique neck) appears after birth or within 2 weeks, the obvious lump in the neck is visible, this lump is shuttle-shaped, no pressure pain, usually reaches the maximum after 1 to 2 months. The etiology is not clear, but most scholars believe that abnormal intrauterine pressure or fetal malposition is the main cause of myotonic squamous neck. In addition, obstructed labor and the use of forceps is one of the causes of myotonic oblique neck, but it has not been proven.  Treatment: 90% of myotonic levator can be cured by massage and physical therapy such as functional exercise, while 10% of those who do not improve by the age of one will need surgery to loosen.  2. Oculogenic squint There is no lump in the neck at birth, and the squint appears only at 6 months of age. This condition may be due to strabismus, which usually shows up only when the child is positioned to look at something and returns to normal when sleeping.  Treatment: Because of the need for the child’s cooperation, oculocutaneous squint can only be diagnosed when the child is about 1 to 2 years old, and it cannot be diagnosed before, so it needs to be reviewed regularly.  Bony squint Bony squint is caused by deformity of the cervical spine. It is caused by a deformity of the cervical vertebrae. It is manifested by the baby’s oblique neck after birth and can be accompanied by symptoms such as short neck, also called short neck syndrome.  Treatment: If the child does not feel discomfort, there is no need to intervene. If there is cervical spine slippage and pain, the symptoms can be relieved through surgery. However, to maintain the stability of the cervical spine in the long term, functional exercises are also needed.