Re: New here w/ some questions:

[Guest guest]

My son was diagnosed with the same thing at 1 month and after his 2 month check up the doctor just said do more tummy time but I luckly took it in my own hands and started him on physical theraphy at 3 1/2 months and took him to Cranial Technologies at the same time. I think you need to go with your gut. You will need a Rx for the physical therapy but you may want to go ahead and do that now so you can get some additional exercises to do on your own with your daughter. She's still too young to get a helmet I think but physical therapy will help some right now. It's your child, you decide what's best! I wouldn't sit on it and just wait especially with torticollis as they don't just "grow" out of that.

From: CaraBear33 <carabear33@...>Subject: New here w/ some questions:Plagiocephaly Date: Monday, May 10, 2010, 1:03 PM

Hi there. My daughter went to her one month appt. a few days ago and the dr diagnosed her with torticollis and plagiocephaly. Her flat spot is on the back right side of her head. I'm kind of more than overwhelmed right now and feeling guilty that I didn't do more to make her not have this spot. I honestlly didn't really know to keep moving her head around at night etc. We have some exercises that the dr. gaves us to do and she just HATES them. SCREAMS soooo loud when we do them and I in turn cry with her. I know it's for the best though but this is just really hard! Annnyway, on to my questions if you have a few minutes. Thanks in advance for answering:1.) How can I help my daughter at night? Since we've known about this I have been turning her head after she falls asleep but then when I check on her five minutes later she has it turned to the side with the flat spot again! Any good advice? Does anyone here use a sleep positioner to

try to get your child to stay on their side a little bit more so that they can't turn their head to the side with the flat spot?2.) During the day what can I do for her? When we have been in the car seat I have been rolling up towels so that she can't turn to the right side. Same thing during the limited time that she's in her bouncer... Anything else I should be doing?3.) I'm trying to give her a TON of tummy time as dr. said that would help. As luck would have it, she hates it of course. And hour a day is hard to get to for sure! I'm going out later today to buy one of the boppy tummy time mats to see if that helps...Maybe its' pillow propping her up will help a little bit?4.) Is some back "play time" still okay??? She is supposed to be practicing turning to the left side so (as bad as it sounds) she LOVES watching tv. We've been letting her watch for 20 mins at a time or so as long as she's turned towards the left. Is this

helping at all or is it just wishful thinking on our part that this could be helping her? I figure if she's turned to that side then it's good right???5.) Awaiting a call back from the dr. When we were at the appt last week she mentioned waiting another month and then re-evaluating whether or not my daughter needs physical therapy for everything. In my mind, WHY WAIT??? Would you agree that this is probably a better idea to move forward than to wait and have things possibly get worse?***THANKS SO MUCH IF YOU READ THIS FAR!!*** I'm glad to have found a board with some women that will hopefully know how I'm feeling right now...

[Guest guest]

I completely agree with , go to a physical therapist ASAP that specializes

in treating infants. I had been doing some of the stretches that the

pediatrician showed me wrong and I also learned a variety of different

techniques for doing the stretches. She also showed me how to use a sleep

positioner. Unfortunately my son still ended up in a helmet (we are on the 2nd

one actually) but I don't notice him favoring his 'bad' side anymore. We were

able to discontinue PT months ago.

>

>

> From: CaraBear33 <carabear33@...>

> Subject: New here w/ some questions:

> Plagiocephaly

> Date: Monday, May 10, 2010, 1:03 PM

>

>

>  

>

>

>

> Hi there. My daughter went to her one month appt. a few days ago and the dr

diagnosed her with torticollis and plagiocephaly. Her flat spot is on the back

right side of her head. I'm kind of more than overwhelmed right now and feeling

guilty that I didn't do more to make her not have this spot. I honestlly didn't

really know to keep moving her head around at night etc. We have some exercises

that the dr. gaves us to do and she just HATES them. SCREAMS soooo loud when we

do them and I in turn cry with her. I know it's for the best though but this is

just really hard!

>

> Annnyway, on to my questions if you have a few minutes. Thanks in advance for

answering:

>

> 1.) How can I help my daughter at night? Since we've known about this I have

been turning her head after she falls asleep but then when I check on her five

minutes later she has it turned to the side with the flat spot again! Any good

advice? Does anyone here use a sleep positioner to try to get your child to stay

on their side a little bit more so that they can't turn their head to the side

with the flat spot?

>

> 2.) During the day what can I do for her? When we have been in the car seat I

have been rolling up towels so that she can't turn to the right side. Same thing

during the limited time that she's in her bouncer... Anything else I should be

doing?

>

> 3.) I'm trying to give her a TON of tummy time as dr. said that would help. As

luck would have it, she hates it of course. And hour a day is hard to get to for

sure! I'm going out later today to buy one of the boppy tummy time mats to see

if that helps...Maybe its' pillow propping her up will help a little bit?

>

> 4.) Is some back " play time " still okay??? She is supposed to be practicing

turning to the left side so (as bad as it sounds) she LOVES watching tv. We've

been letting her watch for 20 mins at a time or so as long as she's turned

towards the left. Is this helping at all or is it just wishful thinking on our

part that this could be helping her? I figure if she's turned to that side then

it's good right???

>

> 5.) Awaiting a call back from the dr. When we were at the appt last week she

mentioned waiting another month and then re-evaluating whether or not my

daughter needs physical therapy for everything. In my mind, WHY WAIT??? Would

you agree that this is probably a better idea to move forward than to wait and

have things possibly get worse?

>

> ***THANKS SO MUCH IF YOU READ THIS FAR!!*** I'm glad to have found a board

with some women that will hopefully know how I'm feeling right now...

>

[Guest guest]

At my daughter's two month visit we were told to do repositioning and we would reevaluate at her 4 month visit.  We went back 2 weeks later for my son, and another doctor at the practice recommended that we go Cranial Tech for an evaluation and Physical Therapy for her torticollis.  It took us a little over a month to get her into see the Physical Therapist (today!) at Children's Hospital (the wait there was longer if it wasn't for torticollis).  I called around to other pediatric physical therapists, that were recommended by my friend who is a physical therapist,  in the area and they had longer waits.  My friend says pediatric physical therapists always say earlier is better and complain that they don't get to see the patients earlier.

I would call for physical therapy as soon as possible, who knows how long it will be before you actually see the physical therapist.  We ultimately decided that we would prefer to treat immediately.  Realistically, repositioning would not have likely worked for us, due to the amount of time my daughter had to spend in a car a day (about 2 1/2 hours through out the day).  When we had our son (we did repositioning to correct his flatness - he did not have torticollis and we never went to be evaluated for a band -  and succeeded), I avoided car time as much as possible, however, this time around life is more complicated, and that isn't an option for us.   My daughter got her helmet on the day she turned 3 months, she was classified as moderate to sever. I know that cranial tech's info says they treat starting at 3 months, so waiting for your 2 month visit to see what the ped says then won't hurt you, we got into see cranial techs the day following the doctor's recommendation.  I don't know if they have waits in your area. 

However, pediatric Physical Therapy is something I would call for ASAP.  Rhea

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 1:03 PM, CaraBear33 <carabear33@...> wrote:

 

Hi there. My daughter went to her one month appt. a few days ago and the dr diagnosed her with torticollis and plagiocephaly. Her flat spot is on the back right side of her head. I'm kind of more than overwhelmed right now and feeling guilty that I didn't do more to make her not have this spot. I honestlly didn't really know to keep moving her head around at night etc. We have some exercises that the dr. gaves us to do and she just HATES them. SCREAMS soooo loud when we do them and I in turn cry with her. I know it's for the best though but this is just really hard!

Annnyway, on to my questions if you have a few minutes. Thanks in advance for answering:

1.) How can I help my daughter at night? Since we've known about this I have been turning her head after she falls asleep but then when I check on her five minutes later she has it turned to the side with the flat spot again! Any good advice? Does anyone here use a sleep positioner to try to get your child to stay on their side a little bit more so that they can't turn their head to the side with the flat spot?

2.) During the day what can I do for her? When we have been in the car seat I have been rolling up towels so that she can't turn to the right side. Same thing during the limited time that she's in her bouncer... Anything else I should be doing?

3.) I'm trying to give her a TON of tummy time as dr. said that would help. As luck would have it, she hates it of course. And hour a day is hard to get to for sure! I'm going out later today to buy one of the boppy tummy time mats to see if that helps...Maybe its' pillow propping her up will help a little bit?

4.) Is some back " play time " still okay??? She is supposed to be practicing turning to the left side so (as bad as it sounds) she LOVES watching tv. We've been letting her watch for 20 mins at a time or so as long as she's turned towards the left. Is this helping at all or is it just wishful thinking on our part that this could be helping her? I figure if she's turned to that side then it's good right???

5.) Awaiting a call back from the dr. When we were at the appt last week she mentioned waiting another month and then re-evaluating whether or not my daughter needs physical therapy for everything. In my mind, WHY WAIT??? Would you agree that this is probably a better idea to move forward than to wait and have things possibly get worse?

***THANKS SO MUCH IF YOU READ THIS FAR!!*** I'm glad to have found a board with some women that will hopefully know how I'm feeling right now...