March 2007 - Jack's Referral & Specialist Visit

Though some aspects of Jack's head did improve in his first six weeks, other areas did not.  To complicate things further, he was diagnosed with reflux and had to stay on a 30 degree incline for most of the day and night.  This is not good, as the pressures from inclined surfaces can cause an increase in head height because it encourages the head to grow upward.  Plus, he already had such a strong preference to look right.  Jack's head wasn't improving despite our best efforts. 

At his one month appointment I had mentioned his head to our pediatrician, who just said we'd keep an eye on it as he grew.  I was also completely unsure of how to best position him to help that dent over his left ear, so I contacted Cranial Technologies for their input.  I was told that since he had such a strong preference for looking right, I should give him lots of supervised tummy time with his head facing left so he didn't lose his range of motion.  We continued this, plus I held him off his flat side for as much of the day as I could.

Unfortunately by two months, his head was still a definite concern.  Our pediatrician inspected him from all angles and said we needed to be referred to a specialist.  We made an appointment with Dr. Gary Rogers at Boston's Children's Hospital.  He saw us the following week and diagnosed Jack with severe plagiocepaly and torticollis.  Much to my surprise, Jack actually measured more severe than Hannah did (21mm vs. 20mm)!  I will say that he doesn't have the width issues that she did though.  Neither were measured for brachycephaly though, but Jack's head certainly doesn't appear to have the width to me.

Given his severity and inutero components of his head shape, it was suggested we start treatment right away.  Dr. Rogers referred us to NOPCO, but we asked him for a non-brand specific prescription, and have again opted to use Cranial Technologies in Connecticut.  We are currently waiting for the precert from Tufts and then will have him casted.  Here are some pictures of his head shape and the "dent" over his left ear.

 

Comments

[Erin]

I don't remember how I even stumbled across your blog- from a plagio site, I'm sure. My daughter has pretty mild plagio, which was too "minor" to be treated, according to the craniofacial doc. She has some facial asymmetry and still has a little crease in her ear on the smaller side of her face. Doc thought she was probably constrained in utero and sort of squished with her head facing right (I'm 5'3" and she was 8lbs, 2 oz and 21.5 inches. She had torticollis too, and favored looking left. However she was jammed in there also left her with some muscle weakness after birth. She's much better now, at 10 months old. I can see some of her asymmetry in person and in pictures, but others don't seem to notice. I think I spent too much time staring at her! I was wondering whether it might have be something that would occur again if we had another child, so I was interested to read your post about Jack (although sorry that you have to deal with this again!). How are things progressing with him? I guess I am just sort of babbling now...I enjoyed reading your blog!