Re: Having Doubts

[Guest guest]

when it comes down to it, I think it's a matter of "if nothing changed today, would it be ok?" -- before we decided to band, we looked at a lot of heads, granted our case was a little different, as our son's head shape is much more rare.In the course of a physician's practice, he/she may see only a few cases of plagiocephaly. In the course of a specialist's practice (pediatric neurosurgeon, craniofacial specialist, plastic surgeon) they may see more-- however, in the case of neurosurgeons and others, unless surgery obviously needs to be done (in the case of craniosynostosis, (fused sutures) for example), they aren't so concerned. One reason is that some kids do "pop" out -- but unfortunately, the window of time is too slim to wait and then find that nothing has changed. And, it was easy to say this if they only saw 2 or 3 cases a year -- odds were almost 50% for nature to correct -- when more ch

ildren are affected (especially a large proportion of them with torticollis), then the odds change dramatically. The older plagiocephaly kids board on has a lot of cases where the parents were told there wasn't an issu, and that it would self-correct. I've seen a few posts on answers about adults wanting to fix their headshape -- and of course, short of surgery, nothing can fix it at that point.I don't believe it's a conspiracy on the part of molding device companies to prey on new parents to help them fix their child's head shape -- I've yet to hear of a company - any company - who was "hard sell" and used any type of marketing to get a parent to band. But for this mom, I'm glad I was able to find a company to help my son's head shape when I did a google search on "abnormal head shape" -- because no one else knew much about this in 2000. Not sure when you were working in daycare, but when I joined this group in 2000, there were

less than 30 members, including people who never posted, those kids are just about 8 or 9 now (2nd/3rd grade). Exponentially, with the back-to-sleep campaign, the numbers went up through the years. I kind of think about this in terms of braces for teeth - there are a lot of people out there who could really benefit from braces, and for whatever reason never were able to get them when they were young. However, as adults, they generally can do something about it if it really bothers them. In the case of a headshape that is not right, there really isn't anything that can be done when the child is older. That said, if you have seen the results you wanted to see, don't feel like it's necessary anymore, you, as a parent, have the right to make the decision to stop at any time. I know I had mixed feelings about this process in many ways -- for example, we probably would have qualified for angel flight but I didn't e

ver check into it for I didn't feel our situation warranted that. I struggled with thinking about a 2nd band, as well -- I knew we could get more results (he only gained a couple of pounds during the time in the band) -- but I was at "at least it's more normal looking" -- so we didn't pursue it - we gained width and slope, that was what our targets were. take care.mom to Quinn, born 11/99, DOCband grad 10/00 for scaphocephalic head shape (large, breech)brief bio and pix @ http://www.cappskids.org/CAPPSPlagioKidQuinn.htm >------- Original Message ------->From : heatherlangston83[mailto:heatherlangston83@...]>Sent : 5/10/2008 1:46:19 PM>To : Plagiocephaly >Cc : >Subject : RE: Having Doubts>>A

m I doing the right thing? My son was diagnosed with tort & plagio at his 2mo well visit. His ped gave us instructions for the tort and that was fairly easily resolved at home over the next two months. By then he had moderate plagio and we did repositioning for the following two months. The plagio worsened and 's forehead started bulging out on one side, and his eyes and ears grew out of alignment. His ped prescribed a helmet at his 6mo well visit and a month later he started wearing a STARband. He's had it for four weeks and we've already seen improvement. It is exciting to see the difference and the helmet no longer bothers him at all. It's like it's not even there. That being said, I'm starting to have second thoughts about this whole helmet thing. It occurred to me that before I had my own children I worked in child care centers for 2.5 years and taught 1st and 2nd grade for 5 years. In the entire time I was working with these young children I never noticed anyone's head being misshapen. Maybe I'm just not that observant, but never in 7.5 years did I think, "Why is his/her head flat?" Until was diagnosed, I had never heard of plagio or babies wearing orthotic helmets. So, my question is, what if the doctors that are saying, "It will round out on it's own." are right? If it takes a helmet to correct plagio, why were all those kid's heads that I taught `just fine'? Are there any studies/formal research about helmet therapy vs. no treatment? How do we know this is the way to go? Langston * 8mo * tort resolved * left plagio * STARband four weeksConner * 2yrs * never banded * Charlie Brown head (except with hair)------------------------------------For more plagio info

[Guest guest]

Hi heather, What I heard is that the flat head Syndrom is increasing. I have to older kids 13 andd 8 years old and both have perfect heads. The difference witn my new baby is that he was slepping on his back all the time because of the SIDS, but my other two kids always slept on tummy or side. AThats probably the reason, people used to put babies to sleep on sides or tummies all the time.heatherlangston83 <heatherlangston83@...> wrote: Am I doing the right thing? My son was

diagnosed with tort & plagio at his 2mo well visit. His ped gave us instructions for the tort and that was fairly easily resolved at home over the next two months. By then he had moderate plagio and we did repositioning for the following two months. The plagio worsened and 's forehead started bulging out on one side, and his eyes and ears grew out of alignment. His ped prescribed a helmet at his 6mo well visit and a month later he started wearing a STARband. He's had it for four weeks and we've already seen improvement. It is exciting to see the difference and the helmet no longer bothers him at all. It's like it's not even there. That being said, I'm starting to have second thoughts about this whole helmet thing. It occurred to me that before I had my own children I worked in child care centers for 2.5 years and taught 1st and 2nd grade for 5 years. In the entire time I was working with these young children

I never noticed anyone's head being misshapen. Maybe I'm just not that observant, but never in 7.5 years did I think, "Why is his/her head flat?" Until was diagnosed, I had never heard of plagio or babies wearing orthotic helmets. So, my question is, what if the doctors that are saying, "It will round out on it's own." are right? If it takes a helmet to correct plagio, why were all those kid's heads that I taught `just fine'? Are there any studies/formal research about helmet therapy vs. no treatment? How do we know this is the way to go? Langston * 8mo * tort resolved * left plagio * STARband four weeksConner * 2yrs * never banded * Charlie Brown head (except with hair)

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