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Hannah's Info Sheet

  • Print one out!
    This is a great guide to preventing, recognizing, and treating Plagiocephaly. It is a simple one page overview of the most important things about plagio that EVERYONE should know! Please pass it along to your friends, family, pediatrician, etc. Our local Early Intervention office was very happy to have these! You are more than welcome to use this as a guide to making your own--it's very helpful to keep in the diaper bag for the many people who ask about the helmet.

Hannah in the Media

  • Hannah in Cranial Tech's 2004 DOCband Calendar
    Check out my Miss July 2004! You can see the entire new 2005 calendar on Cranial Technologies' website!
  • AZ Fox News Story
    MPG file from a news story aired on an Arizona's Fox 10 News channel about Cranial Technologies' role in the separation of the Egyptian twins who were once joined at the head. Hannah's picture makes a brief appearance towards the end of this video!
  • Newspaper Article
    This front page article on Hannah's Story ran in our local newspaper.

Plagiocephaly Prevention

  • ~Limit use of swings, bouncy seats, car seats, etc. Try a carrier that allows you to "wear" baby instead.
  • ~Use a memory foam sleep positioner to alternate which way baby's head is turned while still backsleeping.
  • ~Rotate placement of toys in the crib, carseat, stroller, and during floor play time.
  • ~When bottle feeding, be sure to alternate which side you hold your baby on during feedings
  • ~Provide lots of supervised tummy time from birth.
  • ~Alternate the end you place your baby's head at in the crib and on the changing table

Torticollis

  • Many babies who develop plagio have neck tightness, or Torticollis, which makes repositioning very difficult. These babies may need physical therapy or neck stretching exercises.

Favorite Plagiocephaly Links

  • Plagiocephaly.org
    A great website with info on everything plagio related--from prevention to treatment and everything in between.
  • Cranial Technologies
    Makers of Hannah's DOCbands. Their website has a fabulous Tummy Time Brochure and tons of research and information, including a parents area with discussion board.
  • CAPPSkids
    Cranioysynostosis And Positional Plagiocephaly Support
  • Yahoo! Groups : Plagiocephaly
    An online community of about 3,500 members! This is a parent run site designed to help parents identify and avoid plagio, as well as support in repositioning, banding, and fighting isurance for coverage! This is the best place to get any plagio related question answered!

About Treatment

  • Early diagnosis is the key to treating plagiocephaly. For mild to moderate cases, a trial of aggressive repositioning is recommended first. If after a few weeks the desired results are not accomplished, helmet therapy is often recommended. The best correction is achieved in babies younger than 6 months when the skull is still very soft and growing rapidly, and most helmet providers only treat until age 18 months. Helmets are custom made to a rounded version of your baby’s head and are generally worn 23 hours a day for 3-4 months. It does not hurt the child or pose any risk to proper brain growth and development.

Hannah's Plagio Pals

Plagiocephaly Merchandise

  • Precious Bambino
    Plagiocephaly Gifts, T-Shirts, Mugs & Plagio Wear! Sayings like "Banded Beauty, Helmet Laws Stink, Under Construction," and Graduation T-Shirts!

Plagio & Cranio Webring

« December 2002- Welcome Hannah | Main | March 2002- Internet Bliss & Specialist Visit »

February 2002- Starting To Get Worried

Starting around when Hannah was in her second month, I starting wondering a bit more about why her head, which I had been told would fix itself within a couple weeks, was only getting worse. She had been dutifully placed on her back to sleep, plus more than loved her vibrating bouncy seat to help soothe her colic. We happily carted her around in her all too convenient carseat/baby carrier everywhere she went, and she also spent some time in her swing.

Her ears did pop up on their own thankfully (aside from a small dent in the cartilage), which is kind of ironic since at the hospital we were told that might be a worry, but the head--that would be fine! Here is what one of the ear folds looked like:Folded_ear

Another thing I had noticed was that since birth, when Hannah was sucking on one of her beloved pacifiers, it actually covered up one of her nostrils.  Little did I know that this was because of the facial asymmetry related to her flattened head!

Around now was when it occurred to me that I should try and keep her off that flat side. I bought her a sleep positioner and tried to put her toys on her left side, but she wriggled out of the positioner and would prefer to look at a blank wall on her comfy flat right than fun toys on the left.

PoohAt her two month well baby visit I talked to our pediatrician about it. She was not worried at all and told us that once she got older it would round out, but if it didn't "at least she's a girl and she can grow her hair to cover it." She said if we really wanted when she was six months we could do some xrays to check for other abnormalities (craniosynostosis) and she could refer us to a specialist.