As one of the most prevalent postural deviations,
anterior head carriage is as simple as it sounds. It's the treatment
that is a little more sophisticated. Most people spend too much
time at their computers, in their cars, and walking around with
their head forward of where it should be. As parents, and particularly
new parents, time spent interacting with your infant, toddler
or child usually involves a forward (flexed) body position,
with your head jutted forward as you smile and chat. If fact,
most parenting activities like breast or bottle feeding, carrying
the little ones on your chest, etc. result in a number of positional
concerns including forward head posture. Anterior head carriage
can be present by itself, but is usually associated with other
postural deviations as seen in the Faulty Posture section of
our video program.
To understand anterior head carriage, we must get a little bit
scientific. Carrying your head forward of your body's normal
center of gravity causes the muscles, bones and other structures
of your back and neck to undergo a lot of unnecessary strain.
If the muscles didn't work harder, your head would simply fall
forward onto your chest and your eyes would be looking at the
floor. This clearly isn't an ideal position from which to attempt
your daily parenting activities, so the muscles automatically
keep your eyes level to the horizon by holding on to your head
very tightly. The muscles that are doing all of this extra work
are attached to your bones via tendons. The constant load on
these tendons and their attachments to the bones, can start
to pull the bones out of alignment, or result in your body protecting
itself by laying down extra connective tissue to try to reinforce
these structures. The further forward your head travels, the
more strain, and the greater the chances for these adaptive
changes. If this faulty position goes on long enough, the bones
in your neck can move out of alignment, start to change shape,
or lose their ability to move as they should. You may also start
to develop a hump of soft tissue on your upper back at the base
of your neck. The list of problems and complications gets long
and more painful from there.
The most important factor in avoiding or correcting anterior
head carriage is education and awareness. Actually, this applies
to most developing postural deviations. A few minutes of exercises
or stretches are great, but will have nowhere near the impact
of being educated about how important it is to keep your head
balanced on top of your body for more hours every day. This
is why the Parent Posture exercise program is preceded by valuable
educational content and animations. The exercises and self-test
will help to address any minor anterior head carriage position.
If, during the wall posture self-test, you couldn't get your
head back to the wall, or your head had to tilt backwards to
touch the wall, your anterior head carriage may be severe, or
you may have developed what is known as an excessive thoracic
kyphosis where your upper back has become rounded and flexed
forward.
To see how severe this restriction is,
lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent to
about 90 degrees and your feet flat on the floor. With
your low back curved only slightly off of the floor, try
to get the back of your head to touch the floor without
tilting your head back. This is almost identical to the
standing posture test in our video, but is even easier
because gravity is working with you rather than against
you. If you still can't get your head back without tilting,
and have never discussed your posture with your doctor,
we recommend that you do just that. At the same time please
email us to let us know your situation and keep us updated
on your treatment, or ask us for help if you are unsatisfied
with your care.
