Guest guest Posted January 4, 2004 Report Share Posted January 4, 2004 I think babies as young as 4 months have been baded. Usually the younger they are banded the faster they grow and receive correction. But at 3 months that is a great age to receive correction with repositioing. Have you checked out the files on repositioning? There is some wonderful info in there. You could set a deadline for trying repositioinng. If at the end of the deadline you are not satisfied you could decided to band from there. Also have you looked at the photos of repositioning success stories? We have had members acheive wonderful results. I have heard of some babies hair being a bit thinner at holding ponts but after graduationing it fills right back in. My daughter Jenna's hair actually grew faster. I did feel guilty at first. BUt i do not anymore. You did what the doctors instructed you to do. You didn't know that this could occur. You are a great mom who has found a wealth of information at a very young age. I would definitely discuss your concerns with the Dr. I appluad you for researching this at such a young age. I didn't find out about plagio until my daughter was 6 months old. Please keep us posted. I would also take weekly or every two week photos of your daughters head. This way you keep keep track of her progress. I would take photos of the top, back,both sides, and front view of her. Angie and Jenna(STARband grad 1/21/03) 3 months old I also have another question while I'm posting...my daughter is only 3 months old. After reading a lot of the posts here and looking at the pictures at plagiocephaly.org, it seems as though she is a little younger than most of the babies that have gotten treatment. do you think repositioning might really help her since she is still young? I mean, I hate to even voice this out loud, but I so don't want her to have to wear one of those hats or bands. Of course her health is of absolutely top priority but I don't want to take her out and have people staring at her. And do the hats and bands rub the babies' hair off if worn for as long a period of time as I have read they have to waer them? She barely has any hair to begin with, I don't want to rub off what little she has. Maybe I am getting a little ahead of myself, the dr hasn't even mentioned anything like that yet, but I go back for her 4 month visit on 1/27 and I plan to voice my concerns about her head then. Please tell me how you all coped with the feelings of guilt. I mean, I slept my other two on their side or stomach, and with this one I slept her on her back, just like the drs all say and now look what I have done to her. Ugh, I just dwell ont his all the time. No one seems to understand, my husband and mother both think I am overreacting. Please help me out here, i'm going crazy. Thanks a million.Becky - 4 years - 2 years - 3 monthsFor more plagio info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 4, 2004 Report Share Posted January 4, 2004 Becky - I started repoing my son, , at 13 weeks (he has pics in the repo before and after section). I worked at it as much as I could trying to do as much as possible to avoid having him in a band/helmet. I REALLY did not want him to have to wear it. I also felt a TON of guilt. I posted about it on here also. The guilt was horrible once we realized the repo was not working and he'd have to wear the helmet. But once he started wearing the helmet it's pretty much gone away. I think the main reasons are because 1. I know I did not do anything different with him than I did with my two older girls and their heads were fine, 2. I did my best to try and prevent him from having to wear the helmet, and 3. The helmet doesn't bother him one little bit. It bothered me (and still does to a certain extent) *much* more than it did him, and once I realized that I started feeling better. Now I don't even notice it that much. I change his diaper, give him his bottle and everything while he's wearing the helmet and I can honestly say that now that I've gotten used to it, I don't even notice it anymore. You could do a search on the website for the posts I've made about this subject to see what all I went through... just put my name in the search box. Hope this helps! Cory, mom to (7 months) STARband 11/26, in OK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 4, 2004 Report Share Posted January 4, 2004 Becky, You've got some great responses on repo. I second all of them. I just wanted to share my story and thought process. na was about 8 weeks old when we noticed her head shape. I looked back at her early pics and it appears she was that way from birth (this was confirmed by CT). At her 2 month check I talked about it with her ped. He recommended repo and said we would re-evaluate at 4 months. I found this site and learned what repo was all about. We took some pics right away but not as frequently as we probably should have (my dh didn't think they were necessary). We started aggressive repo but not as rigid as Christy and Remy. After 1 month of no noticeable change we asked the ped for a referral to CT. The evaluation was free so the ped said why not. We discovered na had a slight case of tort and had moderate plagio (11 mm cranial vault asymmetry and 9 mm ear asymmetry). She also had noticeable facial asymmetry. Because of the tort and her odd plagio due to inuterine constraint repo was unlikely to give us the desired results. Insurance and the ped's office were very slow in getting all of the paperwork done. It took one month from the initial evaluation to na's casting. She was cast at 4 months and banded at 4.5 months. She grew out of band #1 very quickly (this is not normal) and was cast again at 5.5 months and banded for the second time at 6 months. She improved from 11 mm cranial to 7 mm and 9 mm ear to 7 mm. There are before and after pics in the na folder and other pics in the plagio kids/brianna folder. Because is so young I would highly recommend aggressive repo. Go as far as you can. You may not be able to mimic what Christie did but give it all you can with two other small children. Take some pics now from top, front, sides, and back. In the before and after section you can see what kind of pics the ortho takes. Go to your 4 month check-up armed with pics and info. Look in your "old" pics to see if you can determine when then flattening started and also get some idea on how it has improved with repo. Determine if there is a Starband or DOCband treatment or local band clinic in your area (check database on ). Maybe print out some of the more compelling research to show your ped in case he/she is not familiar with the outcomes of untreated plagio or that it doesn't always round out on its own. There are research files in the files section and on the Cranial Technologies (CT) website, www.cranialtech.com. Print out the plagio severity chart from the CT website that most closely resembles 's flatness. This may help you determine how severe or not it is. http://www.cranialtech.com/MedicalInfo/identifyplagio.html This is all jmho, so please don't think I'm being pushy. As for the guilt - it gets better. I fully understand not wanting to have to wear a band. You really do get used to the stares. It helps to decorate the band if possible. You also get used to the band. Don't get me wrong, I love the hour a day when na is bandless. There is a really good note in the files section called 's last post, have a kleenex ready. HTH & na 3 months old I also have another question while I'm posting...my daughter is only 3 months old. After reading a lot of the posts here and looking at the pictures at plagiocephaly.org, it seems as though she is a little younger than most of the babies that have gotten treatment. do you think repositioning might really help her since she is still young? I mean, I hate to even voice this out loud, but I so don't want her to have to wear one of those hats or bands. Of course her health is of absolutely top priority but I don't want to take her out and have people staring at her. And do the hats and bands rub the babies' hair off if worn for as long a period of time as I have read they have to waer them? She barely has any hair to begin with, I don't want to rub off what little she has. Maybe I am getting a little ahead of myself, the dr hasn't even mentioned anything like that yet, but I go back for her 4 month visit on 1/27 and I plan to voice my concerns about her head then. Please tell me how you all coped with the feelings of guilt. I mean, I slept my other two on their side or stomach, and with this one I slept her on her back, just like the drs all say and now look what I have done to her. Ugh, I just dwell ont his all the time. No one seems to understand, my husband and mother both think I am overreacting. Please help me out here, i'm going crazy. Thanks a million.Becky - 4 years - 2 years - 3 monthsFor more plagio info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 4, 2004 Report Share Posted January 4, 2004 Becky, Hello, I see that many people have responded to you already. I have not yet read their responses but thought I'd give you a little of my story to help you along. My son is 4 months old. At his two month check-up our Ped. noticed the flatness of his head and referred us to a Plagio specialist. was almost 3 months old when we first met with her. We tried the repositioning and while we have noticed some improvements in head shape it has not been enough. In the beginning, I was horrified at the thought of wearing a band. Just the thought of people staring and wondering and pitying him made me sick. However, when I see how flat his head is, I know that if we do not take care of it now, the stares and the jokes once he is in school will be much worse than what I feel we must endure during this time. That made the decision to band for us easy. Our plagio dr. told us that they would not band a baby till they were at least 4 months old. So we have continued to reposition and do continue to see some nice reshaping. Just no changes in the asyemmetries of his eyes, ears and the jutting forhead remains. We followed up with the dr. on 12/29 and she sent a referral for us to CT. We are now just waiting for an appointment time to have the cast made for his band. There was lots of guilt, but I'm over it now and not looking back. The decisions were easily made once my husband and I decided what our priorities were. When the time comes, you'll be able to make the right decisions for yourself, your family and . Don't worry. , Mom to in Texas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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