Plagiocephaly

I've mentioned in a couple of past blogs that Gavin has something called Torticollis in his neck.  I often compare it to when you sleep on your neck wrong and you wake up stiff and have difficulty turning your head one way.  When Gavin was in side of me he was positioned head down right on my pelvic bone the entire time.  Since he had two other babies squished on top of him it made his neck get stiff looking the same direction the whole time.  With a lot of physical training every day by Joe and I as well as a physical therapist, the Torticollis is pretty much non existent.  Unfortunately though,  it left him with a pretty disfigured head.  He now suffers from something called Plagiocephaly.  Causes of Plagiocephaly are multiples, Torticollis, laying flat after birth and breech position.  So Gavin fell into 3 out of the 4 categories!  Because he was in the NICU for 3 weeks he wasn't being held a lot like most newborns.  A lot of times doctors say to just give the baby time and the flat spots will round themselves out; however, Gavin's head began to cause his face to become asymmetrical so one cheek protruded out further than his eye which, if left untreated, could cause damage to his eyesight. 

20% of children with this disorder will not correct themselves so they require what is called a cranial helmet.  Gavin is one of those!  So two weeks ago we took him to get fitted and receive his helmet.  In order to get fitted they put him through something called a Star Scanner that has eight different cameras that scanned his head in two seconds! 

He's doing great with the helmet...using it to his advantage when it comes to playing and rolling!  He has a hard time at night trying to sleep in it comfortably but he's adjusting really well.  He has to wear it 23 hours a day.  We take it off for 30 minutes in the morning when we get him dressed and then 30 minutes at night for his bath.  On average children of his age wear it from 2 to 4 months.  He's had it on 2 weeks and we already see a difference so hopefully he'll be a best case scenario!  We got to decorate the helmet and the original plan was to make it look like a NY Giants helmet but after their 2 losses Joe changed his mind! 

They measured his head three different ways and these were the results:

This one shows that his ears are off from each other by 8.7mm

This one measured diagonally and he was off by 17.9mm (the worst)

This one measured the forehead and the back of the head and shows he's off by 15.1mm



The results of his helmet decorating: