new parent and just diagnosed

[Guest guest]

Hello! I am new to this! I took my son to the doctor today for his

four week check-up and the doctor said he has plagiocephaly. He told

me to reposition the way he sleeps and to put him on his stomach on

the floor during the day. This scares me and I am very curious if

this will repositioning will really help. I didn't even know there

was anything wrong until he asked about him favoring one side and

then he showed me his ears, forehead and back of his head. He said we

will look at it again in one month.What do you think?

[Guest guest]

Congratulations first that your doctor was on top of this. Many peds completely

blow it off or don't even recognize it. As for repositioning, I also have a 4

month old that is currently in PT for torticollis and plagio. In the last two

weeks alone, by having him sleep on his side at night and spending lots of tummy

time during the day we can see a BIG difference in his head shape. He will

still need a helmet, but will not need it for as long to correct the shape of

his head. Tummy time is great (and safe) as long as it is supervised. I hope

the repositioning helps and that your son's condition improves without

intervention. Just keep a close watch on it - as I'm sure everyone else on this

site will tell you.

(MI)

mom to Regan (5) and (4 mos.; tort/plagio)

[Guest guest]

Hi! Welcome! The first thing that comes to my mind when I read your post is

you have one fantastic pediatrician! You can tell them I said so! Wow, that

is so great that he or she caught this so early. I would say follow their

advice and if repositioning doesn't work, then you can bring up the helmet

(that is if they don't mention it first). Either way, your little one is

really young and it sounds to me you will be able through this early

intervention to get a lot of correction. Our daughter's plagio was due to

torticollis (tightening of the neck muscles) that went undiagnosed by our

ped. If that wasn't bad enough, when I mentioned the flat spot at both the 6

and 9 mo. checkups we were told it would round on its own :0( That did not

happen and now our 12 mo. old little girl has been in her helmet for about 5

1/2 weeks because we pushed for it. Happily we have started to see some

rounding already, but she will never get the correction she could have gotten

had our ped been on the ball. Again, I can't say enough good about your ped!

Way to go! Keep us posted on how the repositioning goes. I will keep you in

my prayers! Theresa (mom to Jessie) DOC band 2-16-02

[Guest guest]

Welcome to the group!! That is one fantastic Doc you have dx at 4 weeks old!

My unprofessional guess from what you've described sounds like maybe

torticollis and plagio started inutero, since he is so young, as was the same

with my son. I say tort because you mentioned that he is favoring one side.

Have your Doctor check for torticollis- this is essentially a tight neck

muscle that could a) limit range of motion to one side (have you noticed if

your child cannot turn his head fully to one side? If its tort, the side

that he does not favor will be the side that he has the hardest time turning

towards. cause the child to tilt (some do, some don't) or tip their head

to towards the side that they do not favor. This needs to be addressed with

physical therapy, and once you get the dx, please email me and I would be

more than happy to direct you that way as far as links online. If the plagio

is caused by tort, or aggravated by tort, you need to work on the tort so

that the plagio will not progress.

You are way ahead of the game here, repositioning could really work for you

if your son is only 4 weeks old. My son was dx at 8 weeks old, and

repositioning is very difficult with a tort baby in my opinion, but it can be

done. Part of our problem was that was in daycare at 3 months, so

we could not keep a watchful eye- so we opted for the DOC band by 4 months

and he was in it by 5 mnths (helped greatly with the misaligned ears,

forehead bossing, smaller eye, etc). Take lots of pics with wet hair from a

birds eye view from atop the head. You will be able to see if the ears are

misaligned, shape of head. After you have started aggressive repositioning,

keep taking pictures to spot any improvement over time. I urge you to talk

to your Doc about torticollis, because this may be the underlying cause of

the plagio. For starters, check out www.torticolliskids.org and compare

pictures to see if they look familiar to your son's condition. Tort and

plagio are totally fixable, especially at such a young age, but you need to

educate yourself and make informed decisions as you have such a window of

opportunity for good results. By the way, tummy time is great for both

plagio and tort. For plagio, its great because you are limiting the amount

of time a young child spends on the back of their soft head. For tort, its

great because it works those neck muscles and strengthens them. Don't be

surprised if your son cries when put on his tummy, most tort kids and I think

some babies in general hate it- start with slow increments of minutes- build

to 5, then to 10, then to 15- this will take time, but definetly worth it-

always supervised.

Good luck and keep us posted! Please ask any questions you may have, I would

be more than happy to help if I can as I was in your shoes not too long ago!

' Mom (tort resolved, DOC grad)

[Guest guest]

Hi there. Let me just say welcome to our group. I also want to tell you how extremely lucky you are to have a doctor that is acknowledging plagiocephaly and giving you the proper steps to try to remedy it. You have caught it at the optimum time. I don't think many have been so lucky. I noticed my son's plagio at 2 months, but the doctors told me, don't worry about it. It will round out on its own. And then at six months when it was worse, then they wanted to do something about it. Until I saw a specialist when he was almost seven months, there had never been a word about repositioning or tummy time. It sounds like you have an educated, awesome doctor! I would say that the majority of us on this board have had to educate our doctors about this.

I understand why the thought of placing your baby on his tummy would maybe frighten you. After all the fuss about, "Put your baby on his back to sleep," it's kind of an odd thought to put a baby on his or her tummy at all. However, that is the mistake I made. My son hardly had any tummy time at all until he was four months old. Supervised tummy time is fine, and your baby should do it every day for I would say at least 15 minutes. It helps develop neck muscle strength, and it also keeps them off the back of their heads. My son spent the whole night sleeping with his head to the right, and then I kept him in swings or those bouncy chairs when I wasn't holding him. When I would put him on his tummy, he didn't like it, so I didn't push it. But that was before I knew that there ways of doing it to make it more pleasant for them. There are Boppy products out there, one specifically for tummy time, and it has kind of a roll at the top to help the baby prop himself up, and then there are little toys that make noise for him to look at.

There is so much confusion with the Back to Sleep campaign that I think it makes parents think that they cannot put their babies on their tummies at all. That's what I thought, and no one ever told me differently. I was a first-time mom, so what did I know? I strongly believe that they should change the slogan to, "Back to Sleep, Tummy to Play."

But I cannot tell you enough how lucky you are to have caught this at 4 weeks! I am confident that you are going to be able to reposition your son and get some tummy time in, and conquer the plagio. Your baby will probably be one of the lucky ones who doesn't need a helmet or band. There are a lot of repositioning techniques you can do. Your baby is small enough to respond to one of those side wedges to keep him on one side or the other. (My son didn't get into his helmet until one year of age, and at this point, we are just praying for any correction we can get. The head stops growing as fast after a year.) I am so envious of you! : )

Good luck to you and welcome!

Kellie, mom of , born 1/17/01, helmeted 1/17/02

Tacoma, WA

[Guest guest]

Hi there & welcome to our group!

Let me first say, that you are very fortunate to have a pediatrician

who noticed your son's condition so quickly! A lot of our group

members have pediatricians who take plagio too lightly & simply wish

to ignore it.

Your son is young enough to get good results with repositioning right

now. The younger the better - 4 wks is a perfect young age to

begin! Check out www.plagiocephaly.org then click repositioning

tips for some great ways to reposition your son. You can also check

our " bookmarks " section in this group for many other repositioining

tips. While your son is awake, definitely try to give him as much

tummy time as you can. MOST babies do not like tummy time - but try

to be as persistent as possible with it. To help, you can get on the

floor & play with your son, give him his favorite toy to look at, if

you have a pet try putting your pet in front of your son (my daughter

liked that!).

But your son is definitely young enough to get a good jump on

repositioning! Best of luck & be sure you keep us updated.

Debbie Abby's mom

DOCGrad

MI

> Hello! I am new to this! I took my son to the doctor today for his

> four week check-up and the doctor said he has plagiocephaly. He

told

> me to reposition the way he sleeps and to put him on his stomach on

> the floor during the day. This scares me and I am very curious if

> this will repositioning will really help. I didn't even know there

> was anything wrong until he asked about him favoring one side and

> then he showed me his ears, forehead and back of his head. He said

we

> will look at it again in one month.What do you think?

[Guest guest]

Hello and welcome to the group! I'm a little late responding so I'm guessing

you have already gotten some really good responses. Your ped is really on top

of things - I'm very impressed! I would think repositioning would work REALLY

well for your baby being so young. Did the ped mention anything about

torticollis? If he is favoring one side that may be a factor and could be

something that needs to be checked. If he does have tort then it will need to

be corrected in order to maximize the correction of the plagio. I think that

repositioning and extending tummy time would be very effective for you baby.

Take some pictures of his head now and in a months time take a look again and

see if there seems to be improvement. You have several months before you will

have to decide if you are getting enough correction with the repositioning or

if you feel that further measures are necessary.

Good luck and welcome. I hope you will keep us posted on progress.

Marci (Mom to )

Oklahoma

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much for the encouragement. It makes me think that maybe

him sleeping on his side will help. Thank you very much for your help.

Henson (Dallas,TX)--- In Plagiocephaly@y..., DKDennist@a...

wrote:

> Congratulations first that your doctor was on top of this. Many

peds completely blow it off or don't even recognize it. As for

repositioning, I also have a 4 month old that is currently in PT for

torticollis and plagio. In the last two weeks alone, by having him

sleep on his side at night and spending lots of tummy time during the

day we can see a BIG difference in his head shape. He will still

need a helmet, but will not need it for as long to correct the shape

of his head. Tummy time is great (and safe) as long as it is

supervised. I hope the repositioning helps and that your son's

condition improves without intervention. Just keep a close watch on

it - as I'm sure everyone else on this site will tell you.

>

> (MI)

> mom to Regan (5) and (4 mos.; tort/plagio)

[Guest guest]

Thank you very much for all the information. I am feeling very

positive about Logan's doctor and I am extremely happy that he

noticed it at such a young age. I hope that we can fix it with

repositioning, but I am also coming to terms about the helmet. Thanks

for the encouragement and also the web sites. I'll keep in touch.

Henson (Dallas, TX)

> > Hello! I am new to this! I took my son to the doctor today for

his

> > four week check-up and the doctor said he has plagiocephaly. He

> told

> > me to reposition the way he sleeps and to put him on his stomach

on

> > the floor during the day. This scares me and I am very curious if

> > this will repositioning will really help. I didn't even know

there

> > was anything wrong until he asked about him favoring one side and

> > then he showed me his ears, forehead and back of his head. He

said

> we

> > will look at it again in one month.What do you think?

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I am starting to think my doctor is

pretty awesome. He didn't mention anything about torticollis. Logan

can lay on his stomach and turn his head both directons, only he

prefers to turn it to his right. We are working on keeping him on his

left side and it is quite a challenge. The doctor did not mention

anything about PT. How do I know if he needs this. Also, when they

are on tummy time is he supposed to keep his head straight or put it

to the left side? Of course he just flops to one side after a few

minutes. Thanks again for all this great information.

Henson (Dallas, TX) --- In Plagiocephaly@y..., rella1234@a...

wrote:

> Welcome to the group!! That is one fantastic Doc you have dx at 4

weeks old!

> My unprofessional guess from what you've described sounds like

maybe

> torticollis and plagio started inutero, since he is so young, as

was the same

> with my son. I say tort because you mentioned that he is favoring

one side.

> Have your Doctor check for torticollis- this is essentially a tight

neck

> muscle that could a) limit range of motion to one side (have you

noticed if

> your child cannot turn his head fully to one side? If its tort,

the side

> that he does not favor will be the side that he has the hardest

time turning

> towards. cause the child to tilt (some do, some don't) or tip

their head

> to towards the side that they do not favor. This needs to be

addressed with

> physical therapy, and once you get the dx, please email me and I

would be

> more than happy to direct you that way as far as links online. If

the plagio

> is caused by tort, or aggravated by tort, you need to work on the

tort so

> that the plagio will not progress.

>

> You are way ahead of the game here, repositioning could really work

for you

> if your son is only 4 weeks old. My son was dx at 8 weeks old, and

> repositioning is very difficult with a tort baby in my opinion, but

it can be

> done. Part of our problem was that was in daycare at 3

months, so

> we could not keep a watchful eye- so we opted for the DOC band by 4

months

> and he was in it by 5 mnths (helped greatly with the misaligned

ears,

> forehead bossing, smaller eye, etc). Take lots of pics with wet

hair from a

> birds eye view from atop the head. You will be able to see if the

ears are

> misaligned, shape of head. After you have started aggressive

repositioning,

> keep taking pictures to spot any improvement over time. I urge you

to talk

> to your Doc about torticollis, because this may be the underlying

cause of

> the plagio. For starters, check out www.torticolliskids.org and

compare

> pictures to see if they look familiar to your son's condition.

Tort and

> plagio are totally fixable, especially at such a young age, but you

need to

> educate yourself and make informed decisions as you have such a

window of

> opportunity for good results. By the way, tummy time is great for

both

> plagio and tort. For plagio, its great because you are limiting

the amount

> of time a young child spends on the back of their soft head. For

tort, its

> great because it works those neck muscles and strengthens them.

Don't be

> surprised if your son cries when put on his tummy, most tort kids

and I think

> some babies in general hate it- start with slow increments of

minutes- build

> to 5, then to 10, then to 15- this will take time, but definetly

worth it-

> always supervised.

> Good luck and keep us posted! Please ask any questions you may

have, I would

> be more than happy to help if I can as I was in your shoes not too

long ago!

>

> ' Mom (tort resolved, DOC grad)

[Guest guest]

Thank you for the warm welocme! The doctor did mention the helmet

will be the last resort, but we will try repositioning first.

Hoefully it works. Thanks again for the information.

> Hi! Welcome! The first thing that comes to my mind when I read your

post is

> you have one fantastic pediatrician! You can tell them I said so!

Wow, that

> is so great that he or she caught this so early. I would say follow

their

> advice and if repositioning doesn't work, then you can bring up the

helmet

> (that is if they don't mention it first). Either way, your little

one is

> really young and it sounds to me you will be able through this

early

> intervention to get a lot of correction. Our daughter's plagio was

due to

> torticollis (tightening of the neck muscles) that went undiagnosed

by our

> ped. If that wasn't bad enough, when I mentioned the flat spot at

both the 6

> and 9 mo. checkups we were told it would round on its own :0( That

did not

> happen and now our 12 mo. old little girl has been in her helmet

for about 5

> 1/2 weeks because we pushed for it. Happily we have started to see

some

> rounding already, but she will never get the correction she could

have gotten

> had our ped been on the ball. Again, I can't say enough good about

your ped!

> Way to go! Keep us posted on how the repositioning goes. I will

keep you in

> my prayers! Theresa (mom to Jessie) DOC band 2-16-02

[Guest guest]

Thank you for the welcom. I am feeling very fortunate to have this

doctor even though he has no personality. I am going to buy the boppy

thing tomorrow and today I bought the mini boppy for the neck and we

are using the side wedge to keep him on the left side. He is ok with

sleeping in the wedge. He does not like tummy time and if he does he

wants to lay on the wrong side. He just flips his head over as fast

as I put it back. He does not have much muscle to keep him up, maybe

the boppy will work. Thank you for everything and it has given me a

new perspective and I know I will make it through this. I will keep

you informed.

Henson (Dallas, TX) --- In Plagiocephaly@y..., Kelliesmith@a...

wrote:

> Hi there. Let me just say welcome to our group. I also want to

tell you how

> extremely lucky you are to have a doctor that is acknowledging

plagiocephaly

> and giving you the proper steps to try to remedy it. You have

caught it at

> the optimum time. I don't think many have been so lucky. I

noticed my son's

> plagio at 2 months, but the doctors told me, don't worry about it.

It will

> round out on its own. And then at six months when it was worse,

then they

> wanted to do something about it. Until I saw a specialist when he

was almost

> seven months, there had never been a word about repositioning or

tummy time.

> It sounds like you have an educated, awesome doctor! I would say

that the

> majority of us on this board have had to educate our doctors about

this.

>

> I understand why the thought of placing your baby on his tummy

would maybe

> frighten you. After all the fuss about, " Put your baby on his back

to

> sleep, " it's kind of an odd thought to put a baby on his or her

tummy at

> all. However, that is the mistake I made. My son hardly had any

tummy time

> at all until he was four months old. Supervised tummy time is

fine, and your

> baby should do it every day for I would say at least 15 minutes.

It helps

> develop neck muscle strength, and it also keeps them off the back

of their

> heads. My son spent the whole night sleeping with his head to the

right, and

> then I kept him in swings or those bouncy chairs when I wasn't

holding him.

> When I would put him on his tummy, he didn't like it, so I didn't

push it.

> But that was before I knew that there ways of doing it to make it

more

> pleasant for them. There are Boppy products out there, one

specifically for

> tummy time, and it has kind of a roll at the top to help the baby

prop

> himself up, and then there are little toys that make noise for him

to look

> at.

>

> There is so much confusion with the Back to Sleep campaign that I

think it

> makes parents think that they cannot put their babies on their

tummies at

> all. That's what I thought, and no one ever told me differently.

I was a

> first-time mom, so what did I know? I strongly believe that they

should

> change the slogan to, " Back to Sleep, Tummy to Play. "

>

> But I cannot tell you enough how lucky you are to have caught this

at 4

> weeks! I am confident that you are going to be able to reposition

your son

> and get some tummy time in, and conquer the plagio. Your baby will

probably

> be one of the lucky ones who doesn't need a helmet or band. There

are a lot

> of repositioning techniques you can do. Your baby is small enough

to respond

> to one of those side wedges to keep him on one side or the other.

(My son

> didn't get into his helmet until one year of age, and at this

point, we are

> just praying for any correction we can get. The head stops growing

as fast

> after a year.) I am so envious of you! : )

>

> Good luck to you and welcome!

>

> Kellie, mom of , born 1/17/01, helmeted 1/17/02

> Tacoma, WA