The D.O. Adventure!!

Layla made a special trip to a D.O. last week (Doctor of Osteopathy) to have her neck worked on. She has a mild tightness on the left side and trouble turning her head that direction, which the chiropractor has been hassling me to do something about. Although the doctor (M.D.) was unconcerned, the chiropractor was persistent and used scare tactics like 'this will be easier to fix now than later' and 'it's going to get worse!' accompanied by a stern face and a card for a well-known pediatric D.O. in town (who my highly esteemed physical therapist AND my beloved doula recommends).

So, I made the call and set up the appointment and took Layla in last week. I was totally worried Layla would be difficult and hard to treat but it wasn't so bad. The doc spent about 20 min talking to me about her history while she played with all his toys (she was particularly excited about a plastic bear, who she gave kisses to, it was very cute). Then I worked on distracting her while the doc gently released tension that was causing a mild twist along her spine, tightness in her neck and a flat spot on the back of her head. She was actually really good and he made a lot of progress - you could immediately see more balance in the way she held her head and I noticed a couple days later she was turning more easily to the left. Wow! We will have to go back a few more times to follow up but I was so impressed I made an appointment for myself too.

And I learned a few good tricks for distracting a baby - spinning super-interesting mobiles on the ceiling (particularly helpful during the five minutes she had to lie on her back, which we can never get her to do anymore), playing 'peekaboo' with her toys, singing songs and clapping together, showing her pictures, the 'binki game' (handing her binki to her, then taking it back, which she really likes for some reason), and of course, reading books. The doc was obviously a seasoned professional and knew every kids song (and more) and even had a lovely singing voice. He kept gushing about how BIG and STRONG Layla is and told her a long story about a crab that she seemed very interested in, all of which offered helpful distraction despite my deep suspicion that she doesn't totally understand English yet. Maybe even babies are wooed by obvious shameless flattery from doctor-types.