Re: Tummy Time Bad and Do I Band?

[Guest guest]

I have twins too and was in a very similar situation. One of our twins was in PT

for Toricollis but it was the other twin who ended needing the helmet. Both the

therapist and ped. mentioned the no contact. We did everything to reposition

him to the point where my husband slept in a recliner hold him so they could

both sleep and my son's head wasn't pushing on anything. We still did some

tummy time but kept him up right as much as we could. When he had to be in his

car seat we bought a boppy noggin nest which cushioned the sides of his head but

had an opening so that his head was not pushed up against anything.

We had BCBS and were told that no matter the measurements the helmet was covered

at 100% but still needed to do a formal appeal for them to cover it. He got his

helmet at 8 months and was out of it by 12 months. He still has a little flat

spot but even now that he's out of the helmet its still rounding out.

>

> My son is 6 1/2 months now and we have finally seen the orthotist. He said

that his condition was moderate (9mm) and that it was caused in the womb from

being a twin and not being able to move around as much in there. We're waiting

to hear back from insurance to see if they will cover a band, but the orthotist

was NOT hopefully with a diagnosis of a " 9 " that they would.

>

> They told us that tummy time was actually the worst thing to do right now.

The rational is, and it makes sense when you think about it, that if he's on his

tummy and his nose is pointed down to the ground, gravity is pushing straight

down on the flat part of his head. So basically even though his head is not

being constricted/pushing against a solid object like the floor or a bouncer,

etc., it's being pushed on by gravity which is heavy for the infant head.

Instead, he strongly suggests only have him sitting up-right and " No Contact " by

putting him in a walker, jumper-roo, exer-saucer, etc. He said that if we were

to do this, in a coule of months he would probably have about a 30% decrease,

which would put him at about a " 6 " which is within the normal range.

>

> Has anyone else ever had or heard of this? What would you do? I'm torn

because we are totally okay with him getting the helmet and I'm all about fixing

it while we can so that he won't have any embarassment, etc. when he gets older

(he's probably going to be tall like his daddy and his head will always stick up

above the crowd--very obvious if there's a flat spot). Also, his face doesn't

have many problems from it, at least not yet. He mentioned something about his

forehead--which I can't even see, and also one ear sits SLIGHTLY lower than the

other but it truly is very slight.

>

> Would you band if insurance picks us up, or would you band regardless? Or is

it better to just have " No Contact " for the next few months and not go through

the hassle of the helmet?

>

> Thanks everyone,

> Lindsey

>