Graduation & A Round Party

April 7, 2010

My son " graduated " from his DOCband last Monday, 3/29, after wearing it

for exactly three months! As some of you may remember, we were one of the many

families whose pediatrician told us repeatedly that our son's plagio would

correct on its own. We finally went to a specialist on our own, and got

his band at a few days shy of being nine months old. It was just three and half

weeks from the day I googled " flat spot on baby's head " (and first learned about

plagiocephaly) to the day got his band on. That's how panicked I felt

about getting that band on his head quickly to make up for lost time and his

" advanced age " !

Thankfully, we got that helmet right in time. In his first six days in the

band, he had 5 mm of circumference growth! He continued to grow regularly at

each of our appointments. We traveled 500 miles from our home in the Sacramento

area to the nearest CT office in Pasadena every two weeks, sometimes flying and

other times driving, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. We loved

Theda, our tech there. His band fit him perfectly; every adjustment was great

and, thankfully, we never had a single problem with fit. A proper fit is so

important for optimal results. started with severe plagio (18 mm CVA),

so we worried that we might need a second band, considering his severity and

age. But as we all know, it's all about the growth. He had 17 mm circumference

growth while in the band--much more than they expected for a baby his age, I was

told--and his results were great. CT did not recommend a second band, and we

feel great about being done and think 's head looks wonderful . Thank

goodness for bands and answers to prayers! We're really grateful for this

technology.

I don't have our photostudy pics yet, but I added a photo of in his band

to the V-Z album here (keep in mind his Daddy played football at UCLA, so that

was an easy theme for decorating):

Plagiocephaly/photos/album/1402666987/pic/18551912\

88/view?picmode=medium & mode=tn & order=ordinal & start=101 & dir=asc

I sure am thankful for the information I got from this group and all its

supportive members. I just think it's wonderful that so many people spend the

time to help each other, even once they've been done with banding for years.

One idea we got from a friend we made here on the support group was to celebrate

's " graduation " with a party where all the foods were round. Since we

have three older kids, they totally got into this! also got his band

off four days before his birthday, so we combined this graduation party with his

first birthday and invited a bunch of friends. Our invitation said, " Come

Circle Round to Celebrate 's 1st Birthday and Graduation From His Helmet

with an 'Everything's Round' Dinner " At the party, we served lots of round

foods--hamburgers, onion rings, curly fries, grapes, cutie oranges, meatballs,

crackers, cheese (had to cut those out in rounds), salami, watermelon cut with a

melon baller, cupcakes, and cookies made into ice cream sandwiches. Everyone

got really into it, especially the kids! We played a game of pictionary, where

the teams had to draw things from categories related to " round " or " helmets "

(ex: Knights of the Round table, hockey helmet, etc.) It was a hit with the

families. I thought I'd share this idea here in case anyone else is looking for

a fun way to celebrate their baby finishing the band. It could, of course, be

done on a much smaller scale , especially if you weren't throwing it as a

birthday party as well.

Sorry for such a long message! I hope it gives some encouragement to moms with

" older " babies that they too can get great correction! I think it's important

not to focus too much on this one aspect of your baby or to stress over numbers

too much, but to try to keep perspective and have a positive outlook on the

process and enjoy those sweet babies!

Mom to , DOCband 12/29/09 to 3/29/10

April 8, 2010

I am so glad to hear about william's speedy progress! How many mm difference did

he end up at?

>

> My son " graduated " from his DOCband last Monday, 3/29, after wearing

it for exactly three months! As some of you may remember, we were one of the

many families whose pediatrician told us repeatedly that our son's plagio would