A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Finn would only turn his head to the right whenever his tummy was in contact with anything...the floor or my chest for example. I started to try to get him to turn his head to the left and found that I couldn't. I realized when I looked back at pictures that he hadn't been turning his head to the left for nearly a month. I think the only reason I noticed it when I did was that my own neck was stiff and I couldn't turn my head to the left while playing on the floor with him one day. So I put in a call to his Doctor and she wanted to see him the next week.
I spent that week working with him a little bit and trying to get him to turn his head to the left by changing the direction I lay him on the changing table (turns out I am terrible at changing diapers with my left hand and I was pee'd on more in one week than I have been in all the previous months of his life), carrying him on my right shoulder so that if he wanted to see anything he would have to look left (he chose to smother himself in my neck instead) and positioning him with his head left during the start of every Tummy Time (which required me to lay him on his right side and gently rotate his body underneath him while leaving his head looking left...needless to say it often didn't work and he usually just dragged his face across the floor so he could look right within a couple seconds anyway). So by the end of a week of trying to get Finn to look left and failing, I was convinced something was very wrong.
I should mention that he turns his head in all directions without preference while on his back or sitting up.
His doctor did a very thorough evaluation of his movements and reflexes and said he was just perfect. She said she could see what I saw, but that she thought it was just a case of slightly weaker muscles in the front of his neck than the back that was preventing him from rotating his head much during Tummy Time and that he seemed to prefer sucking on his right fist, which may account for his turning his head to the right.
All in all she said he really had excellent head control for his age and was very strong. She instructed me to just keep doing what I was doing and try to make things more interesting for him on his left side and to start using our Bumbo to help increase the strength of his front neck muscles. She basically told me that I don't have to be so careful with him and that its OK for us to rough house a little bit! That sounds terrifying, but I'll try....
I've already started to see improvements. He has kept his head to the left during Tummy Time for longer than 30 seconds, although he still hates Tummy Time with a fiery passion, and he has started to turn his head left when I cuddle him to my chest. He even seems to enjoy the Bumbo, though I think its hard work because even though he doesn't get fussy while in it, the back of his neck always starts to sweat like he's doing a tough workout! Hopefully the developments will continue and maybe soon playtime won't feel like such a chore for either of us!
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