Lumpy head after graduation

July 13, 2010

Hi all, well we are graduating next MOnday from our DOC band after 9 weeks. I

was hoping we would be in it longer but he has outgrown the band. My son is 6

months old and our tech is on the cusp of recommending another band. She is

leaving it up to us because she feels he has made great progress. He started

with 18mm and 96% CI, not sure of his final measurements yet but I know there

has been a major change.

I really do not want to go through the process again but I have 2 concerns. One,

the back of his head feels very lumpy to me. Is this normal?? I did not ask the

tech but will on MOnday. And second, the main area that needs improvement is his

right side of his forehead. We are told there is no guaranetee it will even fill

in but it is likely that it will. There is a slight slope to it but I have to

wonder if I am being too critical. Our problems strted in utero and I understand

these are harder to correct. Overall, we are pretty happy with the result but I

see where more correction can be made....do we proceed or not?? I know, only we

can answer these questions. But is anyone familiar with the sloping and did you

see much correction with your DOC bands?

We are also out of pocket for the bands so that is a small factor but would move

forward with the second band if that is what we needed to do.

Thanks for listening-

July 14, 2010

Hi, I have no experience with the DOC band (my son had a Starband) or with

forehead sloping, but my gut instinct from reading your post is that you should

definitely get a second band. If you don't do it now you will constantly be

thinking about it and either will end up doing it later, which will be less

effective, or never, which could drive you crazy forever. I am having the

latter experience!

>

> Hi all, well we are graduating next MOnday from our DOC band after 9 weeks. I

was hoping we would be in it longer but he has outgrown the band. My son is 6

months old and our tech is on the cusp of recommending another band. She is

leaving it up to us because she feels he has made great progress. He started

with 18mm and 96% CI, not sure of his final measurements yet but I know there

has been a major change.

>

> I really do not want to go through the process again but I have 2 concerns.

One, the back of his head feels very lumpy to me. Is this normal?? I did not ask

the tech but will on MOnday. And second, the main area that needs improvement is

his right side of his forehead. We are told there is no guaranetee it will even

fill in but it is likely that it will. There is a slight slope to it but I have

to wonder if I am being too critical. Our problems strted in utero and I

understand these are harder to correct. Overall, we are pretty happy with the

result but I see where more correction can be made....do we proceed or not?? I

know, only we can answer these questions. But is anyone familiar with the

sloping and did you see much correction with your DOC bands?

>

> We are also out of pocket for the bands so that is a small factor but would

move forward with the second band if that is what we needed to do.

>

> Thanks for listening-

>

July 14, 2010

Hi-

I'm not sure about the lumps, it sounds like maybe his head is popping out in

smaller sections, and it should round/even out if in a band longer. I would

definitely ask about that on Monday.

About the slope, my son had something similar, starting in utero. Before the

plagio even developed, he had a dent/slope to the top of the left side of his

forehead from pressing into my uterine wall. After the plagio developed, he had

forehead bossing on his right side, plus the dent/slope on the left, so it

appeared harder to correct once we finally got him a band (which wasn't until 17

months old because no one would take my concerns seriously until then). He did

wear two bands and I think both helped dramatically improve his forehead and the

slope, although neither is perfect (and for those curious, he'll be 4 in 2

months so we've had a lot of time to correct naturally but haven't seen much).

I'm assuming that's maindly because of his age, but I think a part of it is also

due to the inutero shaping. In my opinion, I would go with a second band and get

as much correction out of it as you can. At least then, if the slope is still

there when you're done, you'll know you did everything you could to correct it,

and that's just the way he was meant to be. I'm okay with what's left of my

son's slope, because I know it was inutero and there was nothing I could really

do to prevent it. It's the remaining assymetry from the positional plagio that

can still bother me when I let it.

Good luck with your decision. Please keep me posted, I'd be interested to know

if you see more correction in that area.

Jake-3.5 (DOCBand Grad 9/08)

Raleigh, NC