Re: son is 16 mos - 2nd band, or try to stay in existing band past grad date???

November 8, 2010

Hi ,

I think if you're very concerned and CT is willing to do a 2nd band, go for it.

I know if they don't think the asymmetry is enough to make a good band, they

won't do it. So if they are willing, and you know the results might not be much,

it seems like a good idea to give it a try. is one of the moderators in

this group, although lately she's not very active. Her son Jake was not banded

until 17 months (mostly because her doctor said her son's head would improve on

its own). He wore 2 docbands, and she was happy that he made progress in both.

Of course all babies are different, but you might get more improvement than you

expect.

Here is a link to Jake's photos:

Plagiocephaly/photos/album/97529113/pic/1809411219\

/view?picmode= & mode=tn & order=ordinal & start=21 & count=20 & dir=asc

(photos section/Older plagio kids/Jake W)

-christine

sydney, 4.5 yrs, starband grad

>

> My son will be 16 months Nov 11th. He is currently in his first DOCBand,

which he received at 13 months (Aug 9, 2010). At his initial eval, CT told us

his Cranial Vault Asymmetry was 14mm and that best we could hope for was 7mm,

and even that was being generous, and that he would likely be in 2 bands.

Thankfully, our insurance covered the first band in full.

>

> When I've been going in recently for adjustments, CT is telling me that he

doesn't need the second band. I can see that he's made great progress, but I

can also see that he still needs correction. They did another set of

measurements for me on 10/25/10 and he's down to 5mm of asymmetry. This is

great news, but I also take it with a grain of salt, since we all know how

imprecise measuring with calipers is.

>

> Honestly, I was disappointed to hear they didn't want to do the second band.

I was mentally prepared for two. He has adjusted to it without any problems.

Clearly, it's working. So, why would we give up now? Why would we let these

last few months of growth go by without taking advantage of them to capture the

growth and get additional correction?

>

> Wanting to get more precise measurements, a second opinion, and some peace of

mind about not pursuing the second band, I took him for a STARScan on Nov 3.

They measured his diagonal asymmetry at 9.3mm. (I was a little surprised that

the difference between the calipers measurement & the scan was as big as it was.

(5mm vs. 9.3mm)) They could put him in a band, but by the time I get him in a

STARBand, he'd only be in it for about 1 month (since they are pretty confident

they'd take him out at 18 months of age). They agreed that he had made great

progress, that his head looks good. They also said his asymmetry measures

5/16ths of an inch and they have a goal of getting babies down to 4/16ths of an

inch or less. So, we only have 1/16th of an inch to go. Because of his age,

they were not confident that we'd see much, if any, change. They would do it,

but really didn't recommend it.

>

> I left the STARscan appointment thinking, " Well, maybe I'll just keep him in

the DOCBand even after his scheduled graduation date of Nov 30. " It would just

be " unsupervised " from an orthotist perspective. It seems to me that his

current band still has " room " for his head to fill in those flat spots. At the

same time, I'm a little scared to do that... that I don't really know what I'm

doing and I don't want to mess up his head any further.

>

> So, I went to CT for another adjustment and told my tech about the STARScan

and what I was thinking about keeping him in the band after graduation. She

didn't think that was wise since the band might not be fitting him correctly.

She finally relented and suggested that if I'm not going to be happy and not

able to let it go, I should move forward with the second band. But she

cautioned me that we would likely see very little change. I doubt insurance

will cover any portion of the second band. However, the financial aspect

doesn't play into it for me. I'll pay the money for the band without any

regrets.

>

> So, my questions are...

>

> 1. Has anyone banded this late in the game? (He'll be 16.5 months by the time

he gets a second DOCBand.) If so, did you see results? Were you happy you did

it? If you didn't see results, do you regret it? How old was your child when

they came out of the band?

>

> 2. Has anyone ever kept their child in a band after the graduation date? If

so, did you keep with 23 hours a day so your child would stay adjusted to it?

How did you monitor the fit? How much longer beyond graduation did you keep it

on your child (e.g., a few days, a few weeks, a few months)?

>

> I appreciate any advice / feedback you can provide.

>

> Thanks!

>

November 8, 2010

,

Thanks for the words of encouragement. If there's one thing we've learned about

this whole plagio thing, it's that we have to be an advocate for our son. We

can listen to the experts, but ultimately, we are responsible for making the

decision we think is best for him. I almost got caught again in not listening

to my gut and basing my decision soley on the advice of the band providers.

Jake's results are simply amazing and I hope we get additional great correction

for Tyler out of a second band. Since I've posted this afternoon, I have come

to the decision to move forward with the 2nd band. The 2nd band was what I

wanted all along, so now that she's offering it to me, why wouldn't I seize the

opportunity?

It's also interesting that you made the comment about CT not making a band if

there's not enough asymmetry there. At the last adjustment 10/25, she explained

to me that if there's not enough asymmetry, the band won't fit right and simply

won't work. So, I assumed that was the case with Tyler. Up until today, I got

the sense that they were unwilling to do a 2nd band for him. However, today I

showed her his STARScan and showed her that a scan still shows the diagonal

difference of 9mm (vs. CT's imprecise measurement of 5mm). I don't know if it

was that measurement that persuaded her to change her mind, or just the fact

that she could see that I couldn't let this go since we'd been talking about it

for at least 3 appointments, that she finally relented.

In Plagiocephaly , " christineashok " <christineashok@...> wrote:

>

> Hi ,

> I think if you're very concerned and CT is willing to do a 2nd band, go for

it. I know if they don't think the asymmetry is enough to make a good band, they

won't do it. So if they are willing, and you know the results might not be much,

it seems like a good idea to give it a try. is one of the moderators in

this group, although lately she's not very active. Her son Jake was not banded

until 17 months (mostly because her doctor said her son's head would improve on

its own). He wore 2 docbands, and she was happy that he made progress in both.

Of course all babies are different, but you might get more improvement than you

expect.

>

> Here is a link to Jake's photos:

>

Plagiocephaly/photos/album/97529113/pic/1809411219\

/view?picmode= & mode=tn & order=ordinal & start=21 & count=20 & dir=asc

> (photos section/Older plagio kids/Jake W)

> -christine

> sydney, 4.5 yrs, starband grad

>

> >

> > My son will be 16 months Nov 11th. He is currently in his first DOCBand,

which he received at 13 months (Aug 9, 2010). At his initial eval, CT told us

his Cranial Vault Asymmetry was 14mm and that best we could hope for was 7mm,

and even that was being generous, and that he would likely be in 2 bands.

Thankfully, our insurance covered the first band in full.

> >

> > When I've been going in recently for adjustments, CT is telling me that he

doesn't need the second band. I can see that he's made great progress, but I

can also see that he still needs correction. They did another set of

measurements for me on 10/25/10 and he's down to 5mm of asymmetry. This is

great news, but I also take it with a grain of salt, since we all know how

imprecise measuring with calipers is.

> >

> > Honestly, I was disappointed to hear they didn't want to do the second band.

I was mentally prepared for two. He has adjusted to it without any problems.

Clearly, it's working. So, why would we give up now? Why would we let these

last few months of growth go by without taking advantage of them to capture the

growth and get additional correction?

> >

> > Wanting to get more precise measurements, a second opinion, and some peace

of mind about not pursuing the second band, I took him for a STARScan on Nov 3.