Health And General Life Care: [Plagio] Re: Another new person to the group!!!

Hi Dawn-
My son Jake was diagnosed with torticollis at 2 months as well. We
saw a PT once a week for about 2.5 months and he graduated with full
range of motion in his neck. The PT will evaluate the torticollis
itself and then the therapy is basically a handful of exercises that
stretch the neck in both directions (not just the weak side) and
she'll give you ideas of how to work on getting the baby to look
more to the weak side and also tips on repositioning. She uses toys
to engage them on the weak side, and a stability ball to work on
their neck strength. You will also have to do the exercises at home
3-5 times a day (at least that's what I had to do). And I can tell
you this: the baby will not like having her neck stretched and
pushed and forced into ANY direction, so don't be surprised if she
screams her head off. But my son got used to it after a while and
didn't fight it so much. And in the end, it's worth it, so don't let
that discourage you. I have some photos of Jake at therapy, if you
like I can post them. Just let me know.

Having said all that, I never once heard the word plagiocephaly back
then, mild or moderate. He did get a CT scan to check for cranio and
he didn't have that which was great news, but the neurosurgeon said
he wouldn't need a helmet, it would work itself out. That was when
Jake was 4 months old. He's 16 months old now and there has been
some improvement to his shape, but he still has significant bulge on
his forehead and ear misalignment. We are in the process of pursuing
a band (I finally got a doctor to listen to me), even though it's
kind of late and the improvement won't be as great. My advice to you
(and you might hear this from other people), is that first of you
all, you have plenty of time. You are lucky you are on to the whole
plagio scene so early (although of course you wish you didn't need
to be at all!). I think tackling the torticollis with PT and the
plagio with repositioning is good for now. Some insurance won't
cover the band until they are 4 months old, plus until she is
sitting up on her own, I've read there is some chance of regression
to the flat spot (or even a new flat spot) after graduation from the
band if it's done too early. So I think not too early, but not too
late would be the best plan of action. But of course, only you can
decide what is best for you and your daughter.

Good luck! (and sorry for the long post!)
Nicole in Raleigh
Mom to Jake (16 months)

--- In Plagiocephaly@yahoogroups.com, "Dawn" <dmpearson@...> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone! My 2.5 month old daughter was diagnosed with
positional
> left side posterior plagiocephaly at her 2 month appointment and
mild
> torticollis. The ped is sending us to see a physical therapist
> tomorrow for a torticollis eval, anyone know what we should expect
> out of that meeting?
>
> My ped is fairly conservative about the plagio and keeps telling
me
> that no one has the perfect head shape and everyone is a bit
> asymetrical but it just doesn't sit well with me. My daughter's
> plagio, while not shockingly obvious is messing with her facial
> features by shoving her ear forward, her cheek on the flat side is
> rounder and sticks out more and even the eye sockets seem
different
> to me. After getting the dx, it did not feel comfortable to me to
> just sit around for 2 more months and see what happens so I called
> the STARband orthoist in our area to ask him for specialist names
> that I could go to. He was shocked to learn that the ped had dx
her
> but not taken any measurements so he offered to measure her
himself
> tomorrow to see where she falls on the mild to severe spectrum and
if
> she would even be a candidate for a band. I am going to predict
that
> she will fall into the low end of moderate since it is messing
with
> her facial features...
>
> Is there anything else that I need to do or people I should
contact
> to get this started?
>

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