Milestones of Progress: Noah’s Story

Every par­ent knows the mix of joy and wor­ry that comes with those first days with a new­born, tak­ing in every lit­tle move­ment, every tiny fea­ture. For Thays N., car­ing for her son Noah meant nav­i­gat­ing both.

Though Noah was born healthy and full-term, his size and posi­tion dur­ing preg­nan­cy had left him with very lit­tle room to move before he was even born.

“Dur­ing preg­nan­cy, he stayed in the same posi­tion for a long time,” Thays shared. ​“He was born at 40 weeks and was a big­ger baby, so there wasn’t much space in my belly.”

That lim­it­ed space led to tor­ti­col­lis—tight­ness in the neck mus­cles that caus­es babies to favor one side — and pla­gio­cephaly, a flat­ten­ing of the head that can devel­op when a baby rests in the same posi­tion repeat­ed­ly. Thays noticed that Noah con­sis­tent­ly pre­ferred look­ing in one direc­tion and resist­ed turn­ing the oth­er way.

With guid­ance from her pedi­a­tri­cian, Annais San­ti­a­go, MD, with Duly Health and Care, she began repo­si­tion­ing tech­niques at home. When improve­ment was lim­it­ed, her pedi­a­tri­cian rec­om­mend­ed phys­i­cal ther­a­py for addi­tion­al sup­port. It was the next impor­tant step in Noah’s journey.

At your baby’s reg­u­lar check­ups, take a moment to talk with your pedi­a­tri­cian about head shape, tum­my time, and easy exer­cis­es that sup­port healthy devel­op­ment. Learn more about our Pedi­atrics team >

A Con­nec­tion That Made All the Difference

Find­ing the right ther­a­pist mat­tered deeply, espe­cial­ly when it came to com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

​“Since my first lan­guage is Por­tuguese and my sec­ond lan­guage is Span­ish, it was very impor­tant for me to find some­one who could com­mu­ni­cate in Span­ish,” Thays explained. That’s when they met Kel­ly Her­nan­dez, PT, DPT, a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist at Duly.

Did you know? You can search for Duly providers by the lan­guages they speak to find a health­care provider who can com­mu­ni­cate with you and your fam­i­ly in your pre­ferred lan­guage. Search our team of health­care providers >

“From the very first appoint­ment, I felt an imme­di­ate con­nec­tion with her. I felt under­stood,” Thays said.

Kel­ly, who speaks Span­ish, knows how crit­i­cal that con­nec­tion can be.

“The fam­i­ly would dri­ve 30 to 35 min­utes for appoint­ments, and I want­ed to make sure every ses­sion felt worth­while,” she shared. ​“When fam­i­lies make that kind of com­mit­ment, it’s impor­tant they feel heard and supported.”

That trust car­ried into every ther­a­py ses­sion, espe­cial­ly when things weren’t always easy. Noah expe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant reflux, which some­times made ses­sions challenging.

“Kel­ly was extreme­ly atten­tive, gen­tle, and car­ing with Noah,” Thays shared. ​“He has sig­nif­i­cant reflux, espe­cial­ly dur­ing ther­a­py ses­sions, and he would regur­gi­tate quite a bit. I was always a lit­tle wor­ried about that, but Kel­ly nev­er made me feel uncom­fort­able. She reas­sured me every time, say­ing it was com­plete­ly nor­mal, and con­tin­ued the exer­cis­es with so much care and pro­fes­sion­al­ism. That meant so much to me as a mom.”

For Kel­ly, flex­i­bil­i­ty is key.

“If a baby is uncom­fort­able, ther­a­py isn’t effec­tive,” she explained. ​“I read Noah’s body lan­guage and adjust­ed activ­i­ties or took breaks so he stayed com­fort­able. That way, we get the best ther­a­peu­tic ben­e­fit. It’s always about meet­ing patients where they are and mak­ing sure they feel safe and supported.”

Empow­er­ing Par­ents for Last­ing Progress

From the begin­ning, Kelly’s goal wasn’t just to treat Noah dur­ing week­ly ses­sions, it was to equip Thays with tools she could con­fi­dent­ly use at home. Real progress, she knew, would hap­pen in the every­day moments between appointments.

“When I first saw him, one of my main goals was edu­cat­ing his mom on posi­tion­ing,” Kel­ly said. ​“Babies this young aren’t rolling yet, so move­ment depends entire­ly on the care­giv­er. I taught her how to incor­po­rate stretch­es and posi­tion­ing into their dai­ly rou­tines with­out dis­rupt­ing their flow.”

Ther­a­py became part of every­day life.

“After each dia­per change, I sug­gest­ed doing lit­tle baby sit-ups to strength­en his neck mus­cles,” Kel­ly explained. ​“Pair­ing ther­a­py with every­day activ­i­ties helps it become a nat­ur­al part of the day rather than some­thing extra.”

She empha­sizes just how impor­tant the time between ther­a­py ses­sions is.

“Our patients spend one to two hours a week with us. The last­ing changes hap­pen because par­ents con­tin­ue those activ­i­ties at home. The time they spend with their chil­dren far out­weighs what I can do in ther­a­py. When par­ents feel con­fi­dent and empow­ered, that’s when we see real progress.”
And progress came.

“After about two and a half months of phys­i­cal ther­a­py, Noah became 100% free from tor­ti­col­lis,” Thays said. ​“Kel­ly con­sis­tent­ly took mea­sure­ments, explained every­thing in detail, and taught me all the exer­cis­es to do at home. She was always avail­able to answer my ques­tions and guide me when­ev­er I need­ed help.”

Due to pla­gio­cephaly, Noah also need­ed to wear a hel­met, but thanks to con­sis­tent ther­a­py and repo­si­tion­ing tech­niques, his head shape improved significantly.

“The exer­cis­es and repo­si­tion­ing tech­niques Kel­ly guid­ed made a huge dif­fer­ence,” Thays said. ​“Because of that progress, he will like­ly need to wear the hel­met for a short­er peri­od of time.”

Cel­e­brat­ing Milestones

For Kel­ly, watch­ing babies grow stronger is one of the most reward­ing parts of her work.

“Depend­ing on the child, I may work with them for a few weeks or a few months, and watch­ing that growth is incred­i­bly spe­cial,” she said. ​“It’s heart­warm­ing to know that both the par­ents and I had a part in that progress. See­ing these lit­tle ones grad­u­ate from phys­i­cal ther­a­py ready to take on the world is one of the most reward­ing parts of what I do.”

Today, Noah is thriving.

“Noah is com­plete­ly free from tor­ti­col­lis, and I am incred­i­bly grate­ful for Kelly’s ded­i­ca­tion, kind­ness, and exper­tise,” Thays said. ​“We couldn’t have asked for a bet­ter phys­i­cal ther­a­pist for our son.”

Duly offers phys­i­cal ther­a­py at more than 30 loca­tions across the Chica­go sub­urbs, mak­ing it easy to find care close to home. Learn more about our Phys­i­cal Ther­a­py team >