and I are new here!

[Guest guest]

Hi! My name is and I live in Michigan. I am married and we

have 4 children - 3 boys and my sweet baby girl, .

is 9 months old (born 8-18-06) and she was just diagnosed

with scoliosis last week. We had no idea that she had a problem

until my mom mentioned that her back seemed to have sort of a " bump "

in it. This is right after I noticed that her ribs on her left side

have a couple of " bumps " in them and her ped just said that they

were probably just rib deformations.

Well, she had her first x-rays last week and her ped says she has a

45o curve (unsure of the RVAC right now). I have been doing lots of

research on the internet, and of course I found the ISOP site. I

have talked with and she is going to help me get started on

what I need to do from here.

Our ped set up an appointment with a pediatric orthopedist in

Detroit, but the soonest they could get her in is AUGUST 17TH!!! I

will be on the case, of course. There is NO WAY we are waiting that

long to see someone. I will call the ped tomorrow and have an MRI

set up to make sure it's idiopathic. I will also be gathering

information to send to a " casting " ortho...probably at a Shriners.

Again, is helping me (thank God!).

There is one nagging question that I feel I need to ask you. I am

feeling the absolute worst guilt (but trying to overcome it!). You

see, had reflux as a newborn and had mild laryngomalacia

(esophagus collapses) probably due to the reflux. We had 3 doctors

recommend that she sleep semi-upright in her carseat. So that's what

we did...but was such a GREAT sleeper that we just continued

to let her sleep in it...for 9 months.

Yes, I let my baby sleep in her carseat for 9 months. No, it wasn't

in the car...hahaha! It was in her crib, but every time we would try

to take her out to sleep flat, she hated it...ended up crying a LOT

(which is totally not like her), so we relented and let her back

into the carseat.

Needless to say, as soon as I heard " scoliosis " , the first thing I

did was take her out of the carseat (she's now sleeping wonderfully

flat on her back in the crib, praise God). The second thing I did

was put on the weight of the guilt...which leads me to my question

for you:

Could spending a LOT of time every day in her carseat have either

caused or perpetuated her scoliosis?

I am prepared if the answer is a resounding yes. I have pretty much

already come to terms with it. We are very strong Christians and I

know that everything happens for a reason. But I guess I just need

to know.

Thanks for reading my story so far. I know we have a long road ahead

of us, but I am SO glad that I found this site. The pictures I took

of her back yesterday were so hard to look at, but when I saw almost

the exact same ones in the photos section on here, I felt so much

better!

Please send any comments, suggestions, or help that you can. I need

it! Thanks so much! God bless you and your sweet babies and kids.

They were made in His image - they are all beautiful and absolutely

perfect!

- : )