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Re: Idea to get word out?

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Hi Audrey,

I wrote a rough draft too. I think I like yours better, but I tried

to make mine a little different so it wouldn't look like we were

sending a form letter, and I also tried to squeeze a few more details

in. Let me know what you think!

Dear Abby,

Becoming a parent is the most wonderful experience, and also one that

so many people have had that you'd think there'd be plenty of

accurate information out there on how to care for a baby. Imagine my

husband's and my surprise when we found out at our son's 4-month

checkup that he had a condition called plagiocephaly, which we'd

never even heard of before! Plagiocephaly is a flattening of the

back of the head. It can be present from birth due to a shortening

of the baby's neck muscles on one side that cause them to sleep with

their head in the same position (called torticollis), but it can also

result from sleeping your baby on their back in the same position all

the time. Although our son's plagiocephaly is partially caused by

torticollis, we believe that we might have made his little head worse

because we didn't know that we should be watching for flattening, or

varying the positions that we held our son in or let him sleep in.

We also didn't know that this flattening could get so severe that it

won't just " round out " as our baby gets older.

So now our son is wearing a band to correct the shape of his head.

It looks kind of like a football helmet with a hole in the top,

except it costs $3000. And the worst part is, our insurance isn't

likely to pay for it because lots of insurers consider this condition

cosmetic. It's NOT. If left untreated, apart from having a strange

looking head, your child can have vision problems, migraines, TMJ, or

neurological problems later in life. The problem is that right now

plagiocephaly is so new—it wasn't a big problem before the Back to

Sleep Campaign, but now that everyone is sleeping their babies on

their backs the number of cases of it are going through the roof! We

need the doctors to tell parents about this before we take our babies

home from the hospital, just like you are told about how to prevent

crib death. Please Abby, help us get the word out about this

condition so that other parents won't flatten their babies' heads

without knowing it!

Amy P.

Durham, NC

> > >

> > > I was reading Dear Abby and thinking about how

> > many

> > > others read her column. Several times people have

> > > written in asking her to get the word out about an

> > > important topic, and she does. What if several of

> > us

> > > wrote a brief letter describing Plagiocephaly (and

> > > Torticollis) and maybe how doctors & insurance are

> > > wrongly thinking of it as " just cosmetic " ? It

> > might

> > > grab her attention enough to run one of them. I'm

> > > tired of reading about how many doctors don't have

> > a

> > > clue about either subject- nor do they seem to

> > think

> > > it's important to learn about them! Every major

> > > newspaper would run it, which might catch THEIR

> > > attention enough to do individual stories.

> > > http://www.dearabby.com

> > >

> > > Audrey

> > > 7 mo, DOC Band 1/23/2006

> > >

> >

>

> __________________________________________________

>

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Guest guest

Hi Audrey,

I wrote a rough draft too. I think I like yours better, but I tried

to make mine a little different so it wouldn't look like we were

sending a form letter, and I also tried to squeeze a few more details

in. Let me know what you think!

Dear Abby,

Becoming a parent is the most wonderful experience, and also one that

so many people have had that you'd think there'd be plenty of

accurate information out there on how to care for a baby. Imagine my

husband's and my surprise when we found out at our son's 4-month

checkup that he had a condition called plagiocephaly, which we'd

never even heard of before! Plagiocephaly is a flattening of the

back of the head. It can be present from birth due to a shortening

of the baby's neck muscles on one side that cause them to sleep with

their head in the same position (called torticollis), but it can also

result from sleeping your baby on their back in the same position all

the time. Although our son's plagiocephaly is partially caused by

torticollis, we believe that we might have made his little head worse

because we didn't know that we should be watching for flattening, or

varying the positions that we held our son in or let him sleep in.

We also didn't know that this flattening could get so severe that it

won't just " round out " as our baby gets older.

So now our son is wearing a band to correct the shape of his head.

It looks kind of like a football helmet with a hole in the top,

except it costs $3000. And the worst part is, our insurance isn't

likely to pay for it because lots of insurers consider this condition

cosmetic. It's NOT. If left untreated, apart from having a strange

looking head, your child can have vision problems, migraines, TMJ, or

neurological problems later in life. The problem is that right now

plagiocephaly is so new—it wasn't a big problem before the Back to

Sleep Campaign, but now that everyone is sleeping their babies on

their backs the number of cases of it are going through the roof! We

need the doctors to tell parents about this before we take our babies

home from the hospital, just like you are told about how to prevent

crib death. Please Abby, help us get the word out about this

condition so that other parents won't flatten their babies' heads

without knowing it!

Amy P.

Durham, NC

> > >

> > > I was reading Dear Abby and thinking about how

> > many

> > > others read her column. Several times people have

> > > written in asking her to get the word out about an

> > > important topic, and she does. What if several of

> > us

> > > wrote a brief letter describing Plagiocephaly (and

> > > Torticollis) and maybe how doctors & insurance are

> > > wrongly thinking of it as " just cosmetic " ? It

> > might

> > > grab her attention enough to run one of them. I'm

> > > tired of reading about how many doctors don't have

> > a

> > > clue about either subject- nor do they seem to

> > think

> > > it's important to learn about them! Every major

> > > newspaper would run it, which might catch THEIR

> > > attention enough to do individual stories.

> > > http://www.dearabby.com

> > >

> > > Audrey

> > > 7 mo, DOC Band 1/23/2006

> > >

> >

>

> __________________________________________________

>

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