Ear sticking out [Was: Connection... Autism]

[Guest guest]

That rings familiar to me. It got worse for us, and we ended up

getting a helmet at 16 months. (See " Backwoods Runaround " in the

message archives.) But you sound confident that your daughter's head

is round, whereas our attempts at repositioning never seemed successful.

I suggest forgetting about the money (STARband only cost us ~$1700)

and really making certain about the degree of plagiocephaly

currently. If your assessment is correct, it seems reasonable to

expect that future growth would be symmetrically distributed, since

there is no fulcrum on the back of the head directing more growth

towards one ear. I would then expect the position difference to

remain the same, but improve proportionally as the overall skull base

diameter increases. I doubt a helmet would enhance that process.

But if there is a possibility that your confidence is misplaced,

because some anti-helmet pediatrician is blowing smoke up your butt

about how it's not that bad... get her head measured by a

cradiofacial surgeon or qualified orthotist, and make sure.

--

Thad Launderville

Montpelier, VT

Clara, age 17.5 mos., STARband since 8/10, see Photos

On Sep 28, 2009, at 9:24 PM, tough.keith wrote:

> Does anyone know of children who did not receive a helmet. How did

> their heads progress with age? My daughter is 6 months and really

> does not have a flat head anymore since we have kept her off of it

> for 2 months. One of her ears does stick out a little more than

> the other though. [snip]