Joey's update 1½ years post band

Well, when he got his band off his head seemed "lumpy" but I was told that would go away. It was gone before he even got his after pictures and measurements done 1½ wks later. However, he still had some flatness, it was most noticable on top and some ear assymetry which was most noticable from the rear. I debated long and hard requesting a 2nd band even though CT didn't recommend one and everyone thought he looked great. My husband did not feel he needed one though. 7-8 months later though, as he got bigger his head got bigger, it was still there staring at me. Even my husband commented and we debated having his after cast poured and taking him back for measurements. But then his hair started to grow. I am not sure if that is what really did it but things started to look better. I stopped noticing it every time I looked at him. Until he got his 1st haircut on his 2nd birthday, that seemed to accentuate it a bit. But then his hair grew back and even thickened up. Now I don't notice it unless I look specifically for it, I can only find it b/c I know exactly where and how to look. Noone else can tell he ever had it. He can wear glasses, hats, bike helmets, etc without noticing. Even when I cut his hair myself and he ended up with a shorter 1" clipper cut (not quite a crew cut) it wasn't noticable.

On a lighter note though...I really worried about him getting the band beforehand. He had sensitive skin (surprisingly this wasn't any harder to deal with in the band), wasn't that great of a sleeper at the time (no worse in the band), and hated hats. The latter is the funniest b/c he now loves hats, starting post band he became addicted to baseball caps. Not even that long ago he came across his band and tried to put it on. And just yesterday he wore his bike helmet around for at least an hour.

Band of the week-August 27

We're liking the wheels so here are some more wheels, monster wheels.

That is the Question

When he was tiny he had a bulge above the right side of his head. We thought it was molding and would go away. When at 2 months old despite him living in his sling (this is another good reason to babywear), loving to play on his tummy and not always sleeping in the same position it got worse (or maybe just looked worse as his head got bigger so the lump got bigger) or at least not any better, we became concerned. When we researched we learned he possibly had a condition known as plagiocephaly or craniosynosis. Our research led us to http://www.plagiocephaly.org/ and http://www.cappkids.org/ , there we learned where to look, what to look for, and it was worse than we thought. His ears were considerably off in addition to the bulge. Once we learned what this was and what we could maybe do to help we started changing the positions he slept in, known as repositioning. We were also even more vigilant about his tummy time for play and riding in the sling, off his head. But since his wasn't caused by positioning 4 months of this didn't help much. At 6 months old he still had a misshapped head. At almost 7 months old after many months of waiting to get in we saw a neurosurgeon who ruled out the more serious condition that would require surgery, Craniosynosis. The diagnosis was Plagiocephaly. His bulge is not as pronounced now but his ears are very off, his eye slightly off and he has a flat spot on the back of his head and above one ear with a bulge above and behind the opposite ear causing the ear to protrude and a more pronounced forehead on one side. His hair is coming in to hide it and a hat would always work too. But we want to avoid vision, ear and jaw problems amoung other things that can develop if Plagiocephaly is left untreated. We actually wonder if he isn't already having problems from it such as his GERD as well as possible headaches and earaches since he can be cranky and pull at his ears quite a bit and from birth he has had periods where he will be perfectly happy then suddenly scream, as if in pain, for no known reason. So we have seen the specialists. The treatment past repositioning (which if it is going to work tends to only work until 6 months old) is using a cranial helmet to reshape the head. The Cranial specialists think his ear is off considerably enough that beyond question we should helmet him. They have measured him to have moderate to severe Plagiocephaly. His head shape is atypical Plagiocephaly so harder to treat, the majority of his assymetry is in his skull base and ears. He doesn't have 1 flat spot he instead has several misformed areas. This is probably why we saw little correction from repositioning.