New member - Please HELP !

[Guest guest]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to the group, and so thankful for all this information! I am

a bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start. Here is our

story...at 2 months we started repositioning for plagio and at 5

months referred to childrens hospital cranialfacial in Seattle Wa.

to evaluate his head shape.

They diagnosed Leyton with torticollis and said his plagio is mild

and left it up to us to decide to band him or not. (Looking back at

pictures I see his head tilt to the left from almost day one.) I

also need to start physical therapy. Here are a few of my questions...

How do i find a good physical therapist? seems in our town, just

north of Seattle, there are not too many people who know how to treat

this...one place told me they could 'do it' but would need to 'read

up on it'.

What sort of band or helmet do I choose? Childrens has their own

helmet, which i didn't like (has anyone used this and been happy with

it?) DOCband would mean flying to Arizona, and STARband would be a 6

hour drive to Portland. Does anyone know of any closer or have any

advice about helmets?

Has anyone treated mild plagio without helmeting and had good sucess

beyond the 6 month mark? We are at 5 and a half months now and with

the repositioning that my husband and I have done we have seen about

50% improvement.

I have many more questions but will start with these- any advise is

welcome - I need knowlege !!!! Thank you all for being here!!!! I

have read many postings and looked at all the pictures- you are all

wonderful loving parents!!

Thank you -

Marcie

Leyton's mom

[Guest guest]

Hi Marcie with an " e " - I'm Marci without an " e " ! :-) It's rare to see other

people with my name. Welcome to the group - I'm glad you have joined us. We

have a number of people who were treated with the helmet from the Seattle

Children's Hospital. Some of them have loved it and felt good about the

treatment, some of them have not felt good about the results they got.

Hopefully you will get some responses from both sides. I'm really hoping you

will get some good advice about a PT to see there because the people who have

to " read up " on it don't sound like a very good option! We have some people

here who have not used a band or helmet and have instead used PT and

repositioning exclusively to achieve the results they wanted. If your baby is

receptive to repositioning and if you have good luck finding a good PT a

helmet/band may not be necessary. On the flip side, if you feel like your

baby might benefit from a band/helmet then now is the time to start. 5 1/2

months is really an ideal time to start. Check out

www.plagiocephaly.org/support for a chart that compares the STARband and

DOCband. My daughter wore a locally made helmet from an ortho here in

Oklahoma so I don't have any personal experience with either of the bands.

I know that this is such a difficult decision, but ultimately you should

trust those mommy instincts. I'm sure that they will lead you to the exact

right decision for your baby! Let us know what you decide to do.

Marci (Mom to )

Oklahoma