Baby Miguel Part 2…

I just want to share with the world what a well fitting clear helmet should look like.  If you look at some of my earlier posts, and compare it to this one, you’ll notice that I am not only comparing apples to oranges.  I am comparing apples to bananas…

Baby Miguel was back here last week.  His daddy and mommy brought him.  I didn’t know they were coming again and I didn’t have my camera, but we figured out something else using a Flip camera.  So, here is how his helmet looks like on him.  Now, look further down and see how Maysa’s helmet from ECA looked like on her.  Apples and bananas, I tell you!

I enjoyed seeing Baby Miguel again and cannot get over his composure.  He has it all together, it is amazing!  Oh! and yes, his head is reshaping beautifully.  So happy for mom and dad, and Baby Miguel of course…

On a somewhat similar note, a co-worker’s daughter brought in her son yesterday.  They have been suspecting that he has a “flat head” as well but weren’t sure.  I actually got to meet the other little guy and fair enough, he showed textbook characteristics of brachycephaly to me.  I gave mom lots of advice and recommendations as the ped she saw said that it will round out eventually…  I know the story too well, I told her.

This is how I feel…

As happy as I am to see how Maysa has improved in her band, I can’t help but feel sad deep inside for the time we wasted in her passive helmet and for what I see as not only a lack of improvement but regression as well.  According to her third scan taken yesterday, her plagio has gone down from 8mm to 2.1mm, and her brachy from 98.2% to 93.2%.  She’s only grown about 1cm in circumference between 10/13 and 01/05 but basically her asymmetry is gone.

What am I sad about then? 

Well, I am sad because while in her passive helmet, and according to the numbers on the graph from Orthomerica, she grew 3.5cm in circumference, which is huge, yet her plagio went from 6.4mm to 8mm.  Going by her scan again, her brachy also got worse from 97.9% to 98.2%.  She stayed in that helmet for 3.5 months.  You always hear about such great results in active bands and I can’t help wonder what the results would have been had she been in a DOC band or even a STAR band back when she started treatment at 5.5 months.  Could she have seen perfect correction?  That’s what makes me sad and sick all over again:  regrets, regrets, regrets…

With a cephalic index of 93% Maysa still has brachycephaly (although mild, Laura Plank said) and in my opinion could benefit from another band.  I so want her to get below the 90% somehow.  Why should we stop trying now while things are going so well?  If she’s improved by 5% after nine weeks of treatment, couldn’t we see another 5% of improvement in another band? 

I know that her growth is slowing down but she is not quite 1 year old yet and so many babies start at that age and even later with good results too.  She doesn’t mind the band.  Family is supportive and I could care less what people say or think when they see her in her band, really.

I will be posting her three reports tomorrow once I get them scanned…