Plagiocephaly – The Case Of The Misshapen Head
Have you seen this baby?
She is on the loose roaming the streets with Plagiocephaly. Do not approach, she is considered to have arms and be dangerous! She is a white female with a flat, misshapen head, piercing blue eyes, and a smile that melts hearts (which cannot be seen in the mug shot).
Be warned, her parents have taken action to correct the shape of her head and make her 'normal'. Lucky for them, there was a company (cranial tech) willing to step in and expedite the process. Cranial Tech quickly made a mold of the baby's head in order to see which areas of the head were misshapen. Then, a custom DOC (Dynamic Orthotic Cranioplasty) band was fabricated for this heinous criminal, and yada, yada, yada eight months passed and now her head is nice and round.
The facts… why her head was flat in the first place:- She slept almost exclusively on her back, partly because of the back to sleep campaign, partly because she cried less.
- She had very tight neck muscles (torticollis) and tended to turn her head to one side. As a result, when she was sleeping, she would always lay on that side.
- We, as parents, didn't notice her head getting more flat, until it was too late.
- As described above, a mold of her head was taken, and then she was fitted for a DOC band.
- Every two weeks, we… well mainly my wife and parents so I could keep bringing home the chedda, went to Chicago to get adjustments made to the band. This allowed for the progressive shaping of the head.
Although statistics are a little hard to come by, there are a few things that could happen. The alignment of her ears could have been off, causing balance challenges because of how the inner ear works. Also, as you can see from the mug shot, her eyes were not in line with each other. This could lead to perception issues, as well as minor balance issues.
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments, or the contact page. This is a bit of a simplistic view of a problem that seems to be growing… one which I had no idea about until informed by our doctor.
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I know it's not funny but your cleaver post made light of a serious condition. I've had friends whose kids had this issue and had to wear the helmet. Like you said, it's becoming more common because of the BTS campaign. Well, if the BTS campaign really does reduce SIDS then the helmet seems to me a small price to pay.
I agree that a helmet is a small price to pay. But it seems like there are still a lot of parents who aren't even aware of the option to get a helmet, I know we weren't.
Thanks for stopping by!
I completely agree. The helmet is expensive but I would surely get it if my kid had a flat head. I'm more of the "preventive" kind of person though and wouldn't like to let my baby get a flat head in the first hand! I put my daughter on the Lifenest when she was 1-5 months old (got it at a baby shower) and her head is perfect :) no BTS needed!
I just came across your blog and wondered how old your daughter was when she got her band? My son is 16 months. We took him him to Cranial Tech, Pamarus for evaluation today and were told he has plagiocephaly. While our PD insists that wearing band won't help and that his head would correct itself eventually(which was why we started so late), we want to go ahead and give it a shot.
Thanks for visiting.
Our oldest started her band around 8-9 months. She was just finishing up around 16 months. I think your window of opportunity is quickly closing to get it in before the skull is less pliable.
I hope the Cranial Tech folks were able to give you some good information, I can't even imagine how frustrating it is that your doctor didn't seem to be open to trying it out.
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