What the new doctor said

[Guest guest]

About three weeks ago, our neurosurgeon told us we might as well

discontinue helmet therapy for my 16-month-old son, that whatever

improvement he might get will be minor from here on out. My son,

Conor, has been in a helmet since he was 13 1/2 months old, and when

we went to our 2-month follow-up with the neurosurgeon, we expected

only to be told that we'd have to keep Conor in the helmet for longer

than the first-forecasted 4 months.

Well, I was upset and took my son to another doctor yesterday, a

craniofacial expert at Children's Hospital in Philly. He, too, said

that the results if we were to continue in the helmet would be minor

and that we should think about quitting. Both doctors said that if

Conor came to them with this head shape, they'd consider it a minor

case of plagio (at his first visit, Conor was diagnosed as

mild/moderate, whatever that means) and would not recommend helmet

therapy (at any age). This, I suppose, I should take as good news. We

have seen some improvement in his head shape since he started

therapy, but not a whole lot. The craniofacial guy also said, in so

many words, that kids with more severe plagio who went through helmet

therapy ended up with Conor's head shape and everyone was happy.

I'm feeling pretty defeated right now. The doctor said yesterday that

if he saw Conor in a mall, he wouldn't even notice the plagio. All of

this kind of talk is encouraging, but what I see is what I see--an

uneven forehead, misaligned ears (again, the dr. said the

misalignment was minor), the asymmetrical view looking down, and an

uneven top of the head--his right side is higher. I still seethe when

I think about the pediatrician's decision to wait--too long--to send

us to a neurosurgeon, and I'm still kicking myself for trusting her.

Our orthotist says that he'll continue adjusting the helmet and

working with us if we decide to keep Conor in the helmet. His

prediction for correction is more optimistic than either doctor's. So

we've decided to continue at least until 4 months of therapy are

over, which will take us until the end of March.

As soon as I can, I'll post some pictures of Conor in the files

section (I hope by this weekend) and I'd really appreciate hearing

your reactions to his head shape. Right now, I'm praying that his

wispy baby hair turns into nice, thick toddler hair soon. I'm also

hoping that ordinary sunglasses and bike helmets will fit him

reasonably well and he won't even think about this as he's growing

up.

I'll let you know when the photos are up. Does our plan of action

sound reasonable to you? At this point, I don't think we have other

options.

Thanks for reading this long post.

, Conor's mom, Central PA