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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

« Looking Back | Main | October 2006- Big Sister Hannah! »

August 2005- One Year After Graduation

Hannahface It's hard to believe it has been a year since Hannah has worn a helmet, but it's even harder to believe that she is already two and a half years old!  She is doing wonderful, smart as a whip and keeping us entertained all the time.  Her head looks pretty good these days.  I posted a new set of photos, but it was hard to get good ones with all the hair she has.  You can see the remaining bit of flatness she has and that her ears are not perfectly aligned.  I used to really be fixated on this and I was really disappointed that she wouldn't get "complete" correction, but I can honestly say I'm at peace with it now.  I know I did all I could, three helmets, banding her at a young age, researching my options, etc, and I know she got amazing correction.  I never understood the inutero complications of plagio either, which I now know can play a big part in correcting plagio.  Her progress was just so incredible that I still can't believe it when I look at her progress pictures.  Of course I still feel like our journey was well worth it and I only have good memories of the process (aside from the travel and insurance battles).  Good luck to everyone!

Comments

Hannah's just beautiful, and so lucky that you persisted. My "older " baby Ryan will get his exit casting done next Tuesday, after 16 weeks in a band for positional plagio as a result of torticollis. Thanks for putting together such a great website.

I enjoyed reading your story and Hannah is beautiful. My grand-daughter will have her DOC band off in 3 weeks, she's a year old. We weren't going to do a recast, but now I will encourage my daughter and son-in-law to do it. Katie's was from in utero. Do you know if there is any way to prevent that in future pregnancies? thanks for good info in your article.

Great Website. Made me cry. My son will get his first DocBand on Dec 7th. Nice to know others are out there and I can find courage here when I am feeling like I failed him.
Thanks for your courage

An inspiring story. At 4, 5 and 7 months we were told by our doctor to wait until our son was over a year before seeing a specialist. Finally at 11 months we insisted, only to be told that our son was being seen "very late". Some doctors are clearly ignorant of this problem. He wears a helmet now. We'll update the parents support website as we progress - its a relief to read your experience(s). Paul & Darelene Hubley, Ottawa, Canada

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