Re: Not sure if I should be here, but I think my son has plagio

[Guest guest]

Hi Tina

I wanted to welcome you to the site. I also thought my daughter had a

funny shaped head, in fact I think I typed 'wonky head' into Google

before finally hitting on this thing called Plagiocephaly. It sounds

like your little boy probably does have plagio (although I haven't

looked at the photos), which is usually caused by pressure on the

skull from things like lying on his back, under a baby gym, car seats,

and it can also be made worse by a problem with the neck muscles

(tort) which means the baby can't turn equally on both side - it can

also happen in-utero as well as after birth.

At 13 months, you could certainly seek treatment for plagio, if indeed

this is what your little boy has, in the form of helmet therapy where

the baby wears a light weight helmet (which doesn't hurt them one

bit). This holds the bulgy bits and allows the flattened bits to grow

back creating a more normal headshape. It would take several months to

get some correction, but certainly some babies do see improvements

after one year. The only thing is that you do need to seek treatment

immediately, as time isn't really on your side. The skull grows

massively in the first year, which is why the plagio gets worse and

worse, and slows down dramatically in the second. So you would need to

think about getting an appointment at one of the helmet specialists

around you locally, getting the insurance side of it sorted (though in

view of the time-scale you may have to pay out of pocket- I just don't

know about this side of things though I know waiting for insurance

could delay you at a critical time) and also you do need a ped's

referral for the band/helmet, though if you go to a company such as

Cranial Technologies or Hanger/ STARband near you, they can often

suggest a pro-banding ped to do this if your own ped seems reluctant

(and it sounds like he/she may be). I would book an appointment at CT

or somewhere else as soon as you can as you really do need to start

now to see any chance of correction, which can be quite slow at this

age- although we have many members who have started helmets later and

still seen improvements. There is a database section here where you

can search for a local facility near you.

Your doctor is right to the extent that no-one is perfect, however

this is a correctable problem and he/she is really neglectful not to

let you know this- perhaps your child's teeth will not be perfect, but

I'm sure this won't stop you getting them a brace. Plus there are

degrees of plagio, I don't know how severe your little one's plagio

is, but the fact that people have commented on it and that you are

concerned makes me think you should definitely check out getting

treatment as soon as you can. You do not have to go ahead of course,

they will simply assess your son and tell you how much correction he

might receive with a band- ultimately the decision will still be yours.

Good luck with it all, I think you have been very badly advised by

your doctor, who has not even diagnosed plagio or given you a name for

this which has made it all the harder to seek help. Luckily there are

still options for you (which there would not be by say 18 months) so I

think it would be great for you if you could check them out.

Hopefully others in the US might have ideas on good specialists in

your area- and the database will hold them too.

Let us know how you are getting along

Hannah (mum to Lucia, London, UK)

Cranio grad

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

wrote:

> My son doctor has never mentioned it before, when I have bought up

> 's odd shaped head, he has sort of just said that it is okay

and

> normal. I have been researching more and thankfully found this

group

> where I hope to get a boat load of information and then go back to

the

> doctor full force with information overload. I am jsut worried that

> there is no doctor here to help him. We live in North Dakota, and

well

> good HELPFUL medical facilites are hard to come by.