Re: trouble with the STAR band

[Guest guest]

I'm glad your band is working. However I'm not that thrilled with the ortho's

explanation. I know a lot about how, CT makes Docbands from talking to them. I

also know some about starbands from our ortho and my own experience. To me the

band should hold the head in the prominent area - and doesn't need extra room

there, since there shouldn't be any growth. If there is some growth in that area

it can be adjusted with the foam. But I think the entire time my daughter was in

her starband (5 mo) no foam was removed from the part where she had extra width.

Perhaps they did leave some room initially to account for the difference between

when the scan was taken and when the band was delivered, I really don't know.

If you look at my daughter's scan in the photos section (Our Plagio Babies

S/Sydney M) you can see that where her head was widest there was almost no

growth at all.

I'm glad that your band is working, and don't mean to scare you, Lindsey. I'm

just trying to tell others in the group that I don't agree with what your otho

has said. I think with starbands it is true that there is sometimes " extra room "

but I don't think this is a good thing. Problems like rotation really shouldn't

happen - even if it works out okay in the end. It is something to keep an eye

on, and to bug your ortho about. If it is there for the first week or two until

the head grows a bit I wouldn't worry so much. However if it is an ongoing

problem then I would think the band isn't fitting properly, and you won't get

optimal results. I am not an expert in the banding from a technical perspective.

Just a mom who has been in this group for over 3 yrs now.

-christine

sydney, 4 yrs, starband grad

>

> My little guy had the rotating problem with his StarBand as well. I asked

right away if it was fitting wrong and what could be done. Basically he said

nothing, and it's turned out to be fine. He did tell me a couple of things that

helped me to understand the conundrum that follows with the helmet. You have

two things going on... First, the makers of the helmet try to leave 25mm of

space all the way around (circumfrence) for their head to grow during the

reshaping process, which can sometimes leave unwanted room for it to shift (but

he assured me that it was fine, and it was). Also, he did say that because

there was that extra room, the helmet will tend to shift toward the flat spot,

so for my Eli, his helmet rotated toward his right which was the side of the

flat spot. When you looked at him straight on, it looked like the helmet was on

a little crooked, which then it would touch his ears. Eli's helmet never pushed

hard enough to pull the ears out away from his head though. If that's the case,

definately have an open conversation with your ortho about it.

>

> To be really honest, this website has been so helpful, but it did make me a

little paranoid about what my little guy was going through. Sometimes you just

have to trust that it'll be alright, and in our case, it was fine. Trust your

gut and pursue any hesitations and remember that your orthotist should be on

your side so trust what they say.

>

> Hope this helps and I'd love to hear an update on how things go.

>

> Good luck,

> Lindsey

> (mom to Eli, 10 1/2 months, Starband 11.18.09-present)

>