From the old boards (which reminds me, I had a great resource thread for plagiocephaly on the old boards, I'll recreate one and post it later today) I talked about how my son Trey has plagiocephaly.
What is that? It's when a babys head has constant pressure in one spot and creates a pretty bad flat spot, which throws other areas of the skull outta whack so it's not round any more, and if bad enough (Fortunately Trey's isn't this bad) it can start to shift the features on the face and the ears and make the entire head deformed and assymmetrical.
Trey's is still not round though, and we have the option of putting him in a custom head band that would put pressure on the other spots of the head to round it out. I belong to a plagiocephaly board and the other parents had great successes with the band. We've been to 3 appts with a neurosurgeon, and he agreed that Trey's plagio was moderate but he really only recommended banding those who were on their way to deformities, but left it up to us because he said it would help, if we wanted to do it.
I really want to get him banded just because I know it would give us better results then just trying to do it ourselves, but hubby isn't sure and my parents are deadset against the idea, they sit there and roll their eyes whenever I talk about it, and talk behind my back to everyone else in my family about how I'm so 'anal in my parenting' and going to extremes over nothing.
I notice his head shape though, and other people have too. It's really kind of oddshaped and if I notice it now, what if kids notice it when he's older? He already has a bigger head then most children to the point where strangers come up and instead of saying 'cute baby' they say 'whoah.. big head!'. If his head is such a focal point, is it really that bad to want to make it as normal looking as possible?
Everyone on the plagio board has seen pictures of Trey and they recommend banding him. They say that if it bugs me this much right now, and we miss our little window of opportunity (the skull bones are malleable right now but will be hardening soon) that I'll regret it forever and I'll always wish I had done more.
I don't know what to do though. It's a BIG commitment, it requires appointments to look for improvement every 2 weeks, it requires Treyton wearing a big plastic head band for 23 hours a day, from anywhere between 5 weeks to 5 months. I'm so fucking confused. Our appointment to order his custom headband is July 5th so I have to make up my mind soon. Do you guys think I'm being unreasonable though? If it was a girl I'd probably not do it, because she'd have long hair that would hide it, but Trey's a boy and will probably prefer short hair, and it's really noticeable with short hair :(
You're his mommy and you know what's best for him; if you feel in your heart (and it sounds like you do) that banding will help him to look and feel better when he's older, then it's worth it.
Austin has kinda a flat head. Its getting better . At what point would intervention be nessasary?
http://www.cranialtech.com/medicalinfo/assessment/plagiocephaly.pdf
http://www.cranialtech.com/medicalinfo/assessment/scaphocephaly.pdf
http://www.cranialtech.com/medicalinfo/assessment/brachycephaly.pdf
Here's an assessment form that either you or your doctor could use, my neurosurgeon when looking at this said he'd usually only recommend banding a child with a 'score' of 6 or higher on either instance (plagio, scapho, brachy), at that point he'd write the prescription for a band but leave it up to the parents. If the child had a 'score' of 13-14 or higher, he'd make it necessary to band. This isn't meant for diagnosis though, just to show the different severities.
http://www.cranialtech.com/medicalinfo/assessment/plagiocephaly.pdf
http://www.cranialtech.com/medicalinfo/assessment/scaphocephaly.pdf
http://www.cranialtech.com/medicalinfo/assessment/brachycephaly.pdf
Here's an assessment form that either you or your doctor could use, my neurosurgeon when looking at this said he'd usually only recommend banding a child with a 'score' of 6 or higher on either instance (plagio, scapho, brachy), at that point he'd write the prescription for a band but leave it up to the parents. If the child had a 'score' of 13-14 or higher, he'd make it necessary to band. This isn't meant for diagnosis though, just to show the different severities.
If you believe that having him banded would help him then I say you should do it! your parents or whoever else can roll their eyes and talk about you behind your back but this is Your child and your decision! It's not like you want to do it for yourself. you believe it will help your son! Good Luck mama!
no matter what anyone else says, your his mother, and you know what is best. i think you should go for it, becuase i really think you will regret it if you dont.
Shawn and I talked it over last night. He was really iffy about the whole idea, and I'm part of a plagiocephaly group that has over 2000 members, and so I showed them pictures and asked their advice, then printed everything out for Shawn to read and he agreed with it all. Everyone said that no one has ever regretted NOT banding, but there's a hundred people who have gone there saying they wish they would have when they had the chance, and they'll always regret the fact that they didn't do it.
Soooo, we're banding, and my son's going to have to wear a funny looking helmet all day for a few months :( But I've seen them on kids and they look uber cute ;)
Do what you think is right. A boy I went to school w/ had plagio, and his head was permanently football shaped. So the kids all called him names, and when he was in high school, a teacher asked him why he hadn't went out for football(based on his size, he was big and tall) and he somehow thought it was another wisecrack about his head, so he left and never came back. Back then the treatment was some kind of helmet, but his dad said he'd look stupid, so they didn't do it.
There are helmets and headbands to correct shape (Trey's getting a headband, not a helmet), but you can only do it before a child is 2 years old in most cases. After 2 you won't see much improvement because the skull bones are almost fully hardened. After they fully harden the only way to correct the shape is cosmetic surgery in which they'll readjust the skull bones, and they barely do it unless the skull shape is prohibiting brain growth. I feel bad for that person, and that's mostly why I want to do it, kids can be cruel and I don't want Trey growing up being made fun of, so we're banding him now. It still might take some more work because he's already 8 months old, which is still a good time to do it but if we had gotten our neurologist appt (boo to doctors who don't friggin listen) when we were asking about it when Trey was 3 months old, he probably would already have it off.
I hate the fact that I have to tell my sons doctor everything a million times and he poo-poos it. I really need to find a new doctor. This guy's ignorant.