Tummy Time Bad and Do I Band?

October 16, 2009

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

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