CT Moderator Conference & Pictures!

March 11, 2004

As many of you already know, your moderators were invited to attend

a conference at the Cranial Technologies Corporate office in

Phoenix, AZ last Friday. Debbie, , , Dustie, and myself

were able to go. We had a wonderful time and learned so much! I'll

try and touch on as much as I can remember right now, but I'm sure

more will come to me and the other mods will also add some.

We arrived at the office on Friday morning and were greeted by many

of the staff including Jeanne Pomatto, creator and founder of

Cranial Technologies and the DOCband. Carol kson, president of

Cranial Tech spent most of the day with us. First we went on a tour

of the building. The building is very nice and amazingly clean

considering all the plaster and helmet making materials around! It

was a little strange to see headsicles everywhere in the rooms where

they make the bands! We got to see everything that goes into making

a band start to finish and it truly is amazing. It is all done by

hand--no machines like you would picture in a place producing so

many of a certain product. They were pouring head molds and making

bands all around. What goes into one single band truly is amazing

and individualized. We watched how the foam starts off as a

rectangle and is heated and bonded together and stretched over the

headsicle and then how the plastic is heated and stretched and

vacuum sealed. It really is quite the art to get both the foam and

plastic just perfect so as not to have any pleats or imperfections.

Jeanne draws lines on the plastic to show how she wants the band cut

and we also got to see them doing that. They have to be careful to

make all the correct angles and to leave no rough edges. We watched

the Velcro be put on, which was impressive to me as I never had

considered how they were able to attach it without the baby feeling

the rivets used. Because they have to peel back the foam to do this

it has to be reattached. All the bands are inspected by an

objective source that did not contribute to the actual manufacturing

and if any imperfections are found the band must be redone.

After that we met with Carol and Tim Littlefield and talked about

the various head shapes and saw corresponding headsicles. Most were

the classic shapes we talk about so much on our board, but there

were also some severely misshapen in the womb and hydrocephalus

cases and such. We saw examples of the bands used to treat each

head shape. I had never seen the Bi-Cal band used to treat scaphy

and never realized they used elastics like those on braces. Dustie

explained to me how they had to change 's elastics every week.

Next we listened to Sandy from the insurance department while we had

a yummy lunch! She talked about the types of denials and how

fighting limits or exclusions were most difficult. She showed us

the appeal packet that was put together and is broken up by types of

denials and how to fight them. I didn't get to stay for this whole

presentation because Hannah had arrived with my husband and Tim was

ready to digitize her!

The digitizer was unbelievably amazing! I put Hannah down on a

stool where she was surrounded by little cameras. It takes her

picture in 0.008 of a second and she didn't even have to stay

still! Babies wouldn't even have a clue that anything was happening

as the machine is designed to work with the lights on. Tim

explained that this still isn't the finished product and the final

digitizer model will be much smaller and use cameras with a better

resolution. As is true to her nature, Hannah did scream for her

digitizing, but only because I was trying to put her down with

strange people around! She's a true Mama's girl and had also had a

bad experience having her pictures taken the day before at the

Phoenix CT Clinic.

Later after Hannah had left Tim presented Hannah's digitized images

to all the mods. He had taken six series with the digitizer.

Seeing her head in 3D on the computer was amazing. It even has a

photo overlay so you can see her face. This will be in full color

by the time it is used in clinics. There was a machine next to the

digitizer that he set up to carve out Hannah's head mold in less

than 20 minutes. It looked just like her—crying face and all! CT

is shipping it to me and when it arrives I will take pictures of it

and post them so you can all see how detailed it is. Like I said

before, they will be working with higher resolution in the future,

so it will be even more detailed. This model doesn't pick up all

the details of places such as the ears.

After that we listened to a presentation by Jeanne on a Family Head

Shape Study that CT did. They took families all over the United

States and compared the head shape of the child to that of the

parents. We saw the pictures of the babies with both parents. Many

of these babies had heads much wider than the norm, but none of the

parents had a head wider than the norm. Some babies even had heads

WIDER than one or both parents already! This was designed to prove

that the head shapes are related to the back to sleep campaign

rather than genetics and such. We also had a question and answer

session where we could ask about any questions we had or things that

pop up on the board that we wanted clarification on. One interesting

tidbit is that the velcro actually serves no purpose in the actual

correction process. I had learned that back when Hannah was banded

because she went through a phase where she prefered to have it stick

straight out!

Another thing we saw while we were there were the head molds and

bands that the twins who were joined at the head and successfully

separated wore. It is such an incredible story and Jeanne told us

how great both boys are doing now. They are both wearing DOCbands.

We were also given great informational packets with articles and

many other helpful things that we have included in our files and

links sections. It was truly an amazing and informative day that we

were all honored to be a part of. We can't thank Cranial

Technologies enough for taking the time out to provide us with such

a wonderful day and tons of great information!

And for those of you wondering, meeting each other was lots of fun

and we had some time to do some sight seeing and other touristy

things while in Phoenix. Hannah loved all the attention she got

from everyone! I thought everyone was very true to the

personalities they convey online and we really had a great time

together! You can see a couple new pictures from our trip of us and

also with Jeanne, Carol, and Tim in the photo section

under " moderators. " I'm sure there is plenty that I'm leaving out,

so please feel free to ask questions and we'll do our best to answer

them!

, mom to Hannah, DOCgrad

Cape Cod, Ma

March 11, 2004

Sounds like you all had so much fun. Thanks for the info, I will look

at the files you post. I bet it must have been nice to meet the

others.

Ryel's Mom (Docbanded 11/7/03)

Pensacola, FL

--- In Plagiocephaly , " " <sarahhollis@y...>

wrote:

> As many of you already know, your moderators were invited to attend

> a conference at the Cranial Technologies Corporate office in

> Phoenix, AZ last Friday. Debbie, , , Dustie, and

myself

> were able to go. We had a wonderful time and learned so much!

I'll

> try and touch on as much as I can remember right now, but I'm sure

> more will come to me and the other mods will also add some.

>

> We arrived at the office on Friday morning and were greeted by many

> of the staff including Jeanne Pomatto, creator and founder of

> Cranial Technologies and the DOCband. Carol kson, president of

> Cranial Tech spent most of the day with us. First we went on a

tour

> of the building. The building is very nice and amazingly clean

> considering all the plaster and helmet making materials around! It

> was a little strange to see headsicles everywhere in the rooms

where

> they make the bands! We got to see everything that goes into

making

> a band start to finish and it truly is amazing. It is all done by

> hand--no machines like you would picture in a place producing so

> many of a certain product. They were pouring head molds and making

> bands all around. What goes into one single band truly is amazing

> and individualized. We watched how the foam starts off as a

> rectangle and is heated and bonded together and stretched over the

> headsicle and then how the plastic is heated and stretched and

> vacuum sealed. It really is quite the art to get both the foam and

> plastic just perfect so as not to have any pleats or

imperfections.

> Jeanne draws lines on the plastic to show how she wants the band

cut

> and we also got to see them doing that. They have to be careful to

> make all the correct angles and to leave no rough edges. We

watched

> the Velcro be put on, which was impressive to me as I never had

> considered how they were able to attach it without the baby feeling

> the rivets used. Because they have to peel back the foam to do

this

> it has to be reattached. All the bands are inspected by an

> objective source that did not contribute to the actual

manufacturing

> and if any imperfections are found the band must be redone.

>

> After that we met with Carol and Tim Littlefield and talked about

> the various head shapes and saw corresponding headsicles. Most

were

> the classic shapes we talk about so much on our board, but there

> were also some severely misshapen in the womb and hydrocephalus

> cases and such. We saw examples of the bands used to treat each

> head shape. I had never seen the Bi-Cal band used to treat scaphy

> and never realized they used elastics like those on braces. Dustie

> explained to me how they had to change 's elastics every week.

>

> Next we listened to Sandy from the insurance department while we

had

> a yummy lunch! She talked about the types of denials and how

> fighting limits or exclusions were most difficult. She showed us

> the appeal packet that was put together and is broken up by types

of

> denials and how to fight them. I didn't get to stay for this whole

> presentation because Hannah had arrived with my husband and Tim was

> ready to digitize her!

>

> The digitizer was unbelievably amazing! I put Hannah down on a

> stool where she was surrounded by little cameras. It takes her

> picture in 0.008 of a second and she didn't even have to stay

> still! Babies wouldn't even have a clue that anything was

happening

> as the machine is designed to work with the lights on. Tim

> explained that this still isn't the finished product and the final

> digitizer model will be much smaller and use cameras with a better

> resolution. As is true to her nature, Hannah did scream for her

> digitizing, but only because I was trying to put her down with

> strange people around! She's a true Mama's girl and had also had a

> bad experience having her pictures taken the day before at the

> Phoenix CT Clinic.

>

> Later after Hannah had left Tim presented Hannah's digitized images

> to all the mods. He had taken six series with the digitizer.

> Seeing her head in 3D on the computer was amazing. It even has a

> photo overlay so you can see her face. This will be in full color

> by the time it is used in clinics. There was a machine next to the

> digitizer that he set up to carve out Hannah's head mold in less

> than 20 minutes. It looked just like her—crying face and all! CT

> is shipping it to me and when it arrives I will take pictures of it

> and post them so you can all see how detailed it is. Like I said

> before, they will be working with higher resolution in the future,

> so it will be even more detailed. This model doesn't pick up all

> the details of places such as the ears.

>

> After that we listened to a presentation by Jeanne on a Family Head

> Shape Study that CT did. They took families all over the United

> States and compared the head shape of the child to that of the

> parents. We saw the pictures of the babies with both parents.

Many

> of these babies had heads much wider than the norm, but none of the

> parents had a head wider than the norm. Some babies even had heads

> WIDER than one or both parents already! This was designed to prove

> that the head shapes are related to the back to sleep campaign

> rather than genetics and such. We also had a question and answer

> session where we could ask about any questions we had or things

that

> pop up on the board that we wanted clarification on. One

interesting

> tidbit is that the velcro actually serves no purpose in the actual

> correction process. I had learned that back when Hannah was banded

> because she went through a phase where she prefered to have it

stick

> straight out!

>

> Another thing we saw while we were there were the head molds and

> bands that the twins who were joined at the head and successfully

> separated wore. It is such an incredible story and Jeanne told us

> how great both boys are doing now. They are both wearing

DOCbands.

> We were also given great informational packets with articles and

> many other helpful things that we have included in our files and

> links sections. It was truly an amazing and informative day that

we

> were all honored to be a part of. We can't thank Cranial

> Technologies enough for taking the time out to provide us with such

> a wonderful day and tons of great information!

>

> And for those of you wondering, meeting each other was lots of fun

> and we had some time to do some sight seeing and other touristy

> things while in Phoenix. Hannah loved all the attention she got

> from everyone! I thought everyone was very true to the

> personalities they convey online and we really had a great time

> together! You can see a couple new pictures from our trip of us

and

> also with Jeanne, Carol, and Tim in the photo section

> under " moderators. " I'm sure there is plenty that I'm leaving out,

> so please feel free to ask questions and we'll do our best to

answer

> them!

>

> , mom to Hannah, DOCgrad

> Cape Cod, Ma

March 11, 2004

, thank you for giving the group a run down of our seminar. It

truly was amazing. I have a new respect for Jeanne after seeing

just exactly what she does for OUR babies. I hope what we learned

we are able to pass on to others.

Dustie

--- In Plagiocephaly , " " <sarahhollis@y...>

wrote:

> As many of you already know, your moderators were invited to

attend

> a conference at the Cranial Technologies Corporate office in

> Phoenix, AZ last Friday. Debbie, , , Dustie, and

myself

> were able to go. We had a wonderful time and learned so much!

I'll

> try and touch on as much as I can remember right now, but I'm sure

> more will come to me and the other mods will also add some.

>

> We arrived at the office on Friday morning and were greeted by

many

> of the staff including Jeanne Pomatto, creator and founder of

> Cranial Technologies and the DOCband. Carol kson, president

of

> Cranial Tech spent most of the day with us. First we went on a

tour

> of the building. The building is very nice and amazingly clean

> considering all the plaster and helmet making materials around!

It

> was a little strange to see headsicles everywhere in the rooms

where

> they make the bands! We got to see everything that goes into

making

> a band start to finish and it truly is amazing. It is all done by

> hand--no machines like you would picture in a place producing so

> many of a certain product. They were pouring head molds and

making

> bands all around. What goes into one single band truly is amazing

> and individualized. We watched how the foam starts off as a

> rectangle and is heated and bonded together and stretched over the

> headsicle and then how the plastic is heated and stretched and

> vacuum sealed. It really is quite the art to get both the foam

and

> plastic just perfect so as not to have any pleats or

imperfections.

> Jeanne draws lines on the plastic to show how she wants the band

cut

> and we also got to see them doing that. They have to be careful

to

> make all the correct angles and to leave no rough edges. We

watched

> the Velcro be put on, which was impressive to me as I never had

> considered how they were able to attach it without the baby

feeling

> the rivets used. Because they have to peel back the foam to do

this

> it has to be reattached. All the bands are inspected by an

> objective source that did not contribute to the actual

manufacturing

> and if any imperfections are found the band must be redone.

>

> After that we met with Carol and Tim Littlefield and talked about

> the various head shapes and saw corresponding headsicles. Most

were

> the classic shapes we talk about so much on our board, but there

> were also some severely misshapen in the womb and hydrocephalus

> cases and such. We saw examples of the bands used to treat each

> head shape. I had never seen the Bi-Cal band used to treat scaphy

> and never realized they used elastics like those on braces.

Dustie

> explained to me how they had to change 's elastics every week.

>

> Next we listened to Sandy from the insurance department while we

had

> a yummy lunch! She talked about the types of denials and how

> fighting limits or exclusions were most difficult. She showed us

> the appeal packet that was put together and is broken up by types

of

> denials and how to fight them. I didn't get to stay for this

whole

> presentation because Hannah had arrived with my husband and Tim

was

> ready to digitize her!

>

> The digitizer was unbelievably amazing! I put Hannah down on a

> stool where she was surrounded by little cameras. It takes her

> picture in 0.008 of a second and she didn't even have to stay

> still! Babies wouldn't even have a clue that anything was

happening

> as the machine is designed to work with the lights on. Tim

> explained that this still isn't the finished product and the final

> digitizer model will be much smaller and use cameras with a better

> resolution. As is true to her nature, Hannah did scream for her

> digitizing, but only because I was trying to put her down with

> strange people around! She's a true Mama's girl and had also had

a

> bad experience having her pictures taken the day before at the

> Phoenix CT Clinic.

>

> Later after Hannah had left Tim presented Hannah's digitized

images

> to all the mods. He had taken six series with the digitizer.

> Seeing her head in 3D on the computer was amazing. It even has a

> photo overlay so you can see her face. This will be in full color

> by the time it is used in clinics. There was a machine next to

the

> digitizer that he set up to carve out Hannah's head mold in less

> than 20 minutes. It looked just like her—crying face and all! CT

> is shipping it to me and when it arrives I will take pictures of

it

> and post them so you can all see how detailed it is. Like I said

> before, they will be working with higher resolution in the future,

> so it will be even more detailed. This model doesn't pick up all

> the details of places such as the ears.

>

> After that we listened to a presentation by Jeanne on a Family

Head

> Shape Study that CT did. They took families all over the United

> States and compared the head shape of the child to that of the

> parents. We saw the pictures of the babies with both parents.

Many

> of these babies had heads much wider than the norm, but none of

the

> parents had a head wider than the norm. Some babies even had

heads

> WIDER than one or both parents already! This was designed to

prove

> that the head shapes are related to the back to sleep campaign

> rather than genetics and such. We also had a question and answer

> session where we could ask about any questions we had or things

that

> pop up on the board that we wanted clarification on. One

interesting

> tidbit is that the velcro actually serves no purpose in the actual

> correction process. I had learned that back when Hannah was

banded

> because she went through a phase where she prefered to have it

stick

> straight out!

>

> Another thing we saw while we were there were the head molds and

> bands that the twins who were joined at the head and successfully

> separated wore. It is such an incredible story and Jeanne told us

> how great both boys are doing now. They are both wearing

DOCbands.

> We were also given great informational packets with articles and

> many other helpful things that we have included in our files and

> links sections. It was truly an amazing and informative day that

we

> were all honored to be a part of. We can't thank Cranial

> Technologies enough for taking the time out to provide us with

such

> a wonderful day and tons of great information!

>

> And for those of you wondering, meeting each other was lots of fun

> and we had some time to do some sight seeing and other touristy

> things while in Phoenix. Hannah loved all the attention she got

> from everyone! I thought everyone was very true to the

> personalities they convey online and we really had a great time

> together! You can see a couple new pictures from our trip of us

and

> also with Jeanne, Carol, and Tim in the photo section

> under " moderators. " I'm sure there is plenty that I'm leaving

out,

> so please feel free to ask questions and we'll do our best to

answer

> them!

>

> , mom to Hannah, DOCgrad

> Cape Cod, Ma

March 11, 2004

Hi ,

Thanks for taking the time to send this great description of your

visit to the Cranial Tech " head " office.

I wondered if you learned anything at the conference about how the

head continues to grow after 1-2 years of age. Is there typically some

further rounding, evening out of the volume, or shape changes as the

face grows, or does the shape typically stay exactly the same and just

gets bigger? I see that many people on this list, and also on the

older plag list are always looking for answers to those questions, but

there don't seem to be any definative answers or studies to go by

(I've seen posts on older plag where lots of different expert opinions

vary quite a bit). I wonder if you might have encountered some

information on this while there.

That scanning technique will certainly be fantastic when it is

deployed in all the clinics. Was Hannah being scanned for an

additional band?

-

> As many of you already know, your moderators were invited to attend

> a conference at the Cranial Technologies Corporate office in

> Phoenix, AZ last Friday. Debbie, , , Dustie, and myself

> were able to go. We had a wonderful time and learned so much! I'll

> try and touch on as much as I can remember right now, but I'm sure

> more will come to me and the other mods will also add some.

>

> We arrived at the office on Friday morning and were greeted by many

> of the staff including Jeanne Pomatto, creator and founder of

> Cranial Technologies and the DOCband. Carol kson, president of

> Cranial Tech spent most of the day with us. First we went on a tour

> of the building. The building is very nice and amazingly clean

> considering all the plaster and helmet making materials around! It

> was a little strange to see headsicles everywhere in the rooms where

> they make the bands! We got to see everything that goes into making