& Trent, mild plagio - difficult decision

[Guest guest]

Hi, I'm , and our story starts out pretty typically. Our son

Trent was born a month early (Dec. 9) and had been breech for a long

time. The torticollis " bump " showed up in the first month which

fortunately led to a diagnosis at his 1 mon. appt. We did a lot of

exercises and passive stretches and seemed to knock out the tort

early on (never referred for pt).

However, Trent experienced mild plagio. Our Dr. thought it'd be a

good idea to touch bases with Cranial Tech. (we're extremely

fortunate, their office is less than 5 miles from our house!) At the

1st appt. at about 3.5 months, the therapist wanted us to step up

exercises and repo. and see us again in two weeks. She saw mild

plagio and mild facial assymmetry.

We ended up at two more follow-up visits, and she never could say

that she wholeheartedly recommended a band. It was staying mild. She

kind of left it all up to us ... " Do you see it? Do you want to do

anything about it? A band will help but it's your decision. " This is

complicated by the fact that our insurance will emphatically not pay

for it ... their stand (and they're sticking by it) is that more

research is needed on long-term effects. Great ... our babies need

help now!

Well, after a lot of soul-searching, my husband and I decided that we

were ok with just continuing with the repo. Especially since Trent

was getting older and was spending a lot more time sitting and moving

himself around.

But then weekend before this one, we were in a department store with

bright lights, and caught a look at Trent in a mirror. My hubby was

wearing him in a Baby Bjorn and so he was straighter to the mirror

than usual. The assymmetry struck us anew. You CAN NOT see it when

he's even slightly turned, but you could see it in that mirror.

It's still not bad ... and I think it's primarily cosmetic in nature.

The plagio is mild enough (and he has a lot of hair) that you don't

see it looking at his head ... the therapist always had to pull out

the sock thing and/or get his head wet. But self-esteem is really

important too ... I keep worrying that Trent will look in the mirror

straight on the rest of his life and even if no one else sees it, he

will. I also worry about the flatness in the back and that it's

where he'll go bald someday if he follows my family's pattern.

I sometimes just with the therapist had been more emphatic one way or

the other. " What do you think? " is hard to work with though she was

as nice as she could be (Trent loved her).

My husband has a lot of assymmetry (who knows why?), and I've always

thought he was cute of course. He never even noticed it until a Dr.

mentioned it in the course of a routine physical as an adult, though

it's pretty obvious from my perspective.

Anyway, for other people with mild diagnoses, how did you make your

decision?

Also, Trent is able to and compelled to roll on his tummy to sleep

now. I'm tentatively letting him despite some nervousness about

it ... did tummy sleeping at a later date help anyone?

Thanks for your help. I was a lurker at the torticollis group for a

long time, I just recently joined this one but I can see that people

are just as nice and supportive.