My baby has plagiocephaly

After expressing concerns to our pediatrician about Ansel's flat spot, she referred us to a specialist at Dayton Children's Hospital. The nurse practitioner diagnosed Ansel with plagiocephaly, mild torticollis, and mild truncal hypotonia. So much for all those chiropractor visits, tummy time, and stretching at home. His poor little head is still having some issues.

I was very emotional about all this after the appointment, and I still am. As a parent, I try to do everything that I possibly can to make sure Ansel grows up healthy. For these issues to be appearing is disheartening, especially when I love him so much. But I have to keep a level head and take steps to improve the situation. So here's the breakdown of each issue.

The plagiocephaly (flattening of the head as the skull forms) merely cosmetic, and if we didn't do anything, it is very likely to lessen and perhaps even go away. Ansel's flat spot is of the back left of his head, but when you look at his head from above, it actually looks like a parallelogram. In fact, his ears are not quite aligned either. The NP told us that many times it does improve on its own. Between 0-6 months is the fastest growth, then 6-12 slows down some, and after 12 months is the slowest growth period. So the sooner we address it, the better. See pic below:

The torticollis (shortening/tightness of neck muscles (SCM) on one side) is most likely the cause of the plagiocephaly, because Ansel has favored the left side since the first few weeks. We started taking him to the chiropractor around a month for adjustments and learned stretching to do, and definitely saw some improvement in how much he favored the left side. For example, in the first month he would always fall asleep looking to the left, and began to fall asleep looking straight up or to the right. We did tummy time, placed bright toys to the right, and constantly tried to turn his head when he was sleeping. However, at 5 months he still has a mild case of torticollis.

The mild truncal hypotonia (head lag) is perhaps connected with the above concerns. This doesn't worry me as much because it seems like a more normal thing for a baby to develop at a difference pace.

To address these concerns, Ansel will be starting physical therapy this week and is going to be fitted for a cranial remolding helmet. Yikes!! My kid is going to be in a helmet?? Yep, 23 hours a day for 4-6 months or until the flat spot goes away. The helmet works not by putting pressure on the skull, but by keeping pressure off. In a way I feel embarrassed and just silly, but the bottom line is that I want the plagiocephaly corrected as soon as possible. It's expensive though... in the ballpark of $2,500. I'm hoping that insurance will pay, but if not I'm glad that we have this in our HSA (though it will pretty much wipe us out for the year). But it's worth it to me.

What I want is for my baby to grow up healthy and love God. He doesn't have to be the Gerber baby model. That's not the point of the helmet. (In the back of my mind though, I know it would break my heart if I didn't do anything and it ended up not rectifying itself, and then he was bullied because of it.) Don't we all want the best for our kids? I sure do. Walking into Children's last week, I kept having flashbacks of appointments for my little sister Ratona for her seizures, planning brain surgery, and therapy afterwards. That emotional story is a post for another day, but let me just say it was unnerving to be in the same place. I'll be honest and say I prayed many times for a healthy baby that would not have to face all the difficulties that she did. I know, I repeat, I KNOW this is nowhere near the magnitude of that situation, but geez, I am really trying to trust God and also do my part to help Ansel be as healthy as possible. I know every situation is a chance to trust God and bring Him glory, so I'm trying to do that as we start this journey.