no helmet for us!

[Guest guest]

hello everyone! i haven't posted since my daughter's PT told us she

looked like a borderline case for a helmet back in october, but i

wanted to update. we finally saw the cranio-facial specialist today,

and he said maggie's head looked fantastic to him. he said to keep

doing the repo and PT until she's at least one, but that her head

looks almost totally normal.

i'm so excited! he told me i should be really proud of myself and our

PT (and maggie of course). that's so nice to hear, because as you all

know it really is a lot of work to do the PT every day and all the repo.

so, just to quickly recap from the beginning, i noticed maggie's tilt

and flat spot just before she turned 3 months old (end of august). we

started PT almost right away (september) and maggie did wonderfully.

she's so easy going, and very strong, so after about 2 months (mid

november) the PT told us we could come back in 2 months. at the end of

october was when she'd told us that we might want to just look into

the helmet. before that, i was using a receiving blanket to tip her to

her side at night and just keeping her off her back as much as

possible (which was easy, she was sitting up with help by the time we

started PT, so she didn't spend any more time on her head awake).

after the PT mentioned the helmet, i gave in at night and let maggie

just nurse in bed with me all night. this kept her off the flat spot

all night, but has of course gotten us into some bad habits. it's

totally worth it though, i'm so happy we wont't need the helmet!!

another thing the specialist said we had going for us was that maggie

grew so much over the last 6 months. she was an average size baby (7

lbs 15 oz and 20.5 inches) but is 29 inches long and 19 lbs at 6

months old. all that growth gave her head a great chance to fill out.

that's all! i'm SOOO excited!! i don't have any numbers to share (i

wish i did), but judging from the photos i've seen here, she couldn't

have been more than 7 or 8 mm at her worst, truly a lowest borderline

case, in case our repo and PT success could help someone else make a

decision.

oh, one last thing, she still has a bulge on the left side (the right

is the flatter side) of the nape of her neck. i was a bit worried

about this being something maybe related to the cause of her tort, but

the specialist said no. he said that it's that this is where the neck

muscle anchors to the skull, and that it's the right side that is

flattened, not the left side bulging, and that the flattening was

caused by the muscle pulling tighter on the skull on that side. go

figure. he said it probably won't get much better, but there's nothing

that i can do about it, and it won't be noticeable when she's bigger

anyway. so, in case anyone else is worried about that, it's nothing.

-desiree

[Guest guest]

Congratulations on avoiding the helmet. I'm glad you were able to fix

her head :-)

-christine

sydney, almost 3 yrs, starband grad

>

> hello everyone! i haven't posted since my daughter's PT told us she

> looked like a borderline case for a helmet back in october, but i

> wanted to update. we finally saw the cranio-facial specialist today,

> and he said maggie's head looked fantastic to him. he said to keep

> doing the repo and PT until she's at least one, but that her head

> looks almost totally normal.

>

> i'm so excited! he told me i should be really proud of myself and our

> PT (and maggie of course). that's so nice to hear, because as you all

> know it really is a lot of work to do the PT every day and all the repo.

>

> so, just to quickly recap from the beginning, i noticed maggie's tilt

> and flat spot just before she turned 3 months old (end of august). we

> started PT almost right away (september) and maggie did wonderfully.

> she's so easy going, and very strong, so after about 2 months (mid

> november) the PT told us we could come back in 2 months. at the end of

> october was when she'd told us that we might want to just look into

> the helmet. before that, i was using a receiving blanket to tip her to

> her side at night and just keeping her off her back as much as

> possible (which was easy, she was sitting up with help by the time we

> started PT, so she didn't spend any more time on her head awake).

> after the PT mentioned the helmet, i gave in at night and let maggie

> just nurse in bed with me all night. this kept her off the flat spot

> all night, but has of course gotten us into some bad habits. it's

> totally worth it though, i'm so happy we wont't need the helmet!!

>

> another thing the specialist said we had going for us was that maggie

> grew so much over the last 6 months. she was an average size baby (7

> lbs 15 oz and 20.5 inches) but is 29 inches long and 19 lbs at 6

> months old. all that growth gave her head a great chance to fill out.

>

> that's all! i'm SOOO excited!! i don't have any numbers to share (i

> wish i did), but judging from the photos i've seen here, she couldn't

> have been more than 7 or 8 mm at her worst, truly a lowest borderline

> case, in case our repo and PT success could help someone else make a

> decision.

>

> oh, one last thing, she still has a bulge on the left side (the right

> is the flatter side) of the nape of her neck. i was a bit worried

> about this being something maybe related to the cause of her tort, but

> the specialist said no. he said that it's that this is where the neck

> muscle anchors to the skull, and that it's the right side that is

> flattened, not the left side bulging, and that the flattening was

> caused by the muscle pulling tighter on the skull on that side. go

> figure. he said it probably won't get much better, but there's nothing

> that i can do about it, and it won't be noticeable when she's bigger

> anyway. so, in case anyone else is worried about that, it's nothing.

>

> -desiree

>