How long should we wait to see a specialist

[Guest guest]

My daughter is two and a half months has flattening on one side. So far we have

taken her to see her pediatrician and she has seen a physical therapist. I was

wondering how long we should wait before taking her to a specialist. What kind

of specialist? Is there any testing that she should have done in the mean time?

For now her doc is recommending repositioning efforts, which we have been doing

for a month or so. But I wonder what next steps to take as well as the timing of

any next steps if things don't improve.

[Guest guest]

Hi! I noticed flattening with my daughter's head around 3 1/2 months. She has torticollis as well, which contributed to the flattening. Her pediatrician wanted us to wait, but as a concerned parent, I wanted to do everything possible. We were given the brochure to Craniotechnologies as well as a reference to a plastic surgeon. We couldn't get in to the plastic surgeon right away, so we went to CT. They recommended the band, which we bought (and insurance didn't cover). Around two weeks into her wearing the band (which she didn't seem to mind) we went to see the plastic surgeon so he can see if she had anything else we should be concerned with. He offered to do a scan of her head for free (he uses the StarBand). We agreed and the results were upsetting. All of her measurements were normal (in other

words, she didn't need a helmet). And in the past 2 months of physical therapy her ears have aligned and head rounded out (she is a very physical baby - she just turned 7 months and is crawling like a crazy woman). And we rarely put her in the helmet because of her "within normal" results from the plastic surgeon. She graduated from a helmet she didn't really wear. So, my advice would be to reposition, give her LOTS of tummy time, and don't use bouncy chairs, bumbo chairs, or anything that makes her passive and lets her lean to a side. Around 6 months have the pediatrician evaluate her again and see where you are. Sincerely,From: robbins1230 <robbins1230@...>Subject: How long should we

wait to see a specialistPlagiocephaly Date: Thursday, September 3, 2009, 6:30 AM

My daughter is two and a half months has flattening on one side. So far we have taken her to see her pediatrician and she has seen a physical therapist. I was wondering how long we should wait before taking her to a specialist. What kind of specialist? Is there any testing that she should have done in the mean time? For now her doc is recommending repositioning efforts, which we have been doing for a month or so. But I wonder what next steps to take as well as the timing of any next steps if things don't improve.

[Guest guest]

Adehla,

That's a very interesting story. I wonder whether the difference was in the error of hand measurements or just in the improvement that you got from everything else that you did. My only recommendation that I would add is that it might be nice to have all of the appointments made so that if it hasn't rounded out by six months, the baby could get into a helmet right away.

Also, how severe was the plagio as evaluated by CT? I've noticed that they tend to recommend helmets for less severe cases than the STARband people do.

How long should we wait to see a specialistPlagiocephaly Date: Thursday, September 3, 2009, 6:30 AM

My daughter is two and a half months has flattening on one side. So far we have taken her to see her pediatrician and she has seen a physical therapist. I was wondering how long we should wait before taking her to a specialist. What kind of specialist? Is there any testing that she should have done in the mean time? For now her doc is recommending repositioning efforts, which we have been doing for a month or so. But I wonder what next steps to take as well as the timing of any next steps if things don't improve.