Stella Madeline

Stella has just completed a three-month stint in a correctional helmet for plagiocephaly, or flat head syndrome. Yup. Our little daughter was developing one funky shaped head. If you’d like a little more detailed information on plagiocephaly, feel free to check out this article from Baby Center.

Plagiocephaly, we came to find out, is very common with multiple births and especially common with Twin A–which Stella is. Stella was also the smaller of the girls at birth so she had her nice and chunky sister sitting on her head. Ouch. This leads to the shortening of the neck muscles that caused her to always want to look to the right.

She began developing her flat area almost from the start. It was fairly noticeable at her two month check up and Dr. Rose asked us to try and reposition her head as much as possible to help her even out. We did. We fed her to the left, turned her to the left but she kept on looking right. It didn’t help that she was our better sleeper and when you have one baby fussing all night and one baby who sleeps pretty well you don’t mess with the sleeper if you can help it.

At her four month check up, the pediatrician we saw (Dr. Rose was away) remarked upon her head shape. It was taking on an oblong look. Not flat directly in the back but sloped to the side so that her forehead was pushing out somewhat. He suggested we look into getting a cranial helmet for her but felt it was more of a cosmetic decision. I didn’t want to helmet my daughter for cosmetic reasons–we’d keep trying to reposition her.

Then Stella grew. She went from a peanut to a coconut in the blink of an eye and by the time her six month check-up was due we knew we had to take steps to correct the head that wasn’t getting better on it’s own. On to the Internet and reading what we could about plagiocephaly. It turned out to be more serious than I had thought, especially because Stella was developing an alarming asymmetry that could lead to jaw problems, ear problems–including chronic ear infections and even vision problems. Not to mention an out of whack forehead isn’t exactly hidden by hair as commonly suggested for flat spots in the back of the head.

I found some blogs that chronicled other children and their helmets. I even posed the question of whether or not to go forward with the cranial therapy to our Parents of Multiples club, to see if the might be any wisdom to draw from.

The responses I received from the group were overwhelmingly positive. The kids had no trouble wearing the helmets and the therapy had greatly improved their heads. John and I were convinced. At Stella’s next appointment we’d go ahead and ask about the next steps.

We were slated to see Dr. Don at the girls’ six month appointment. I really like Dr. Don (next to Dr. Rose, of course) and felt he’d be able to give us some really good advice. As it turned out, little Stella had gone from the 25th percentile head circumference to a 75th percentile head circumference in two months. Yes, her head was growing fast and not rounding out on it’s own. Dr. Don agreed that we should go see a specialist and get an opinion on how to best proceed. He wrote out a prescription to help with insurance and we were off to Hanger Prosthetics.

Continue on to part 2 — getting her head measured.