Re: Children's Hospital in St Louis and Sybill Naidoo

[Guest guest]

We saw Dr. Leonard at SLCH and he left it up to us on whether we dis the helmet or not. We decided to and the orthotist was actually there that day so we were fitted the same week. Our son was almost 10 months old. He had 2 heart surgeries so was behind on rolling over, sitting, etc. and had some blood on his brain from surgeries and being on blood thinners. His head went from the 1st percentile to 90th in about 2 months due to obstruction in his heart. He had brachy. We are glad we did it. We saw immediate improvement but not much after that. Our insurance didn't cover it. You can try the Variety Club in St. Louis. We learned about it too late but were approved 100%. I don't know if he qualified for heart or head reasons but it would be worth a try. They pay the company but can't reimburse a family. We had already made our last payment so it

didn't help us. Hope thus answers some if your questions.AmySent from my iPodOn Mar 17, 2011, at 2:33 PM, "Lis" <me21ssa@...> wrote:

I work at Washington University which is affiliated with Children's so this is a good thing for me, but we just got an appointment there via our new ped. My son's first dr laughed me out of the office. We noticed his flat spot at about 2 months and started trying to repo. I mentioned to the NP around 3 months and she said if it didn't get better I'd have to get him a helmet and I was totally against it to begin with. I got frustrated with that dr and took my LO to the hanger clinic and had their free evaluation. He had to do the scan three times so I dont know how accurate it was but he was measuring 91 % for brachy and 5 mm for plagio, which doesn't in itself seem bad but the back of his head is just FLAT and then pointed at the top with some bulging over his left ear (right is where the plagio is) and the right side of his face is bulging but hasn't created any assymetry. I want to get him evaluated and try insurance and have the option

to pay if insurance won't pick it up. I don't want to just give up on him. He's just over 5 months and still isn't rolling over yet so unless we sit him up or whatever he's on his back. We try to side sleep him but that doesn't work too well. I guess I want to know who has had experience with Children's in St Louis. My ped told me that they routinely tell even moderate cases that it's the parents choice whether to go through with it since many insurances still won't pay for them. Also, we have BCBS Anthem of MO. They're supposed to be covered at 80% but I'm not sure what the qualifications for that are. Thanks for any help, sorry it's so long.