A Surprisingly Sane Blog

Last week I posted an entry about the fact that my darling daughter has a crooked head, and that it is up to us to decide whether or not we should choose to correct it.

Could you say no to this precious little baby?

Thank you, by the way, for all of your support and opinions regarding this decision.  It made me feel a lot better knowing that you all didn’t think I’m nuts for wanting to do this.

After discussing the issue, it was a clear answer:  of course we have to do this for her.  We don’t want April coming to us ten years from now asking why on earth we didn’t fix her head when we had the chance so that her ponytail wouldn’t look crooked.  Or ask us why bike helmets don’t fit her.  Or why sunglasses can’t seem to reach her other ear.

You see, sweetheart, your head is asymmetrical.  We could have fixed it when you were a baby, but we just didn’t want you to have to wear a helmet for 3-6 months.  We decided you would be fine just learning to live with the fact that a crooked head is nothing to be ashamed about. It’s cosmetic.  Get over it.

Yeah, that just didn’t sound like it would fly to us, either.  I mean, regardless of whether our insurance covers it or not, I would prefer to give her one less reason to feel self conscious during the awkward teenage years.  I would feel terrible if this issue made her feel bad about herself in years to come when I could have done something to help correct it.

So today I had to take her to this place where they do the helmet fitting.  It was more of a consultation than anything else.  Basically, the orthopedic lady (technician?) took pictures and measured the asymmetry of April’s little head to send to our insurance company.  From there, they determine whether or not they will cover the cost of the treatment, and then we do the actual molding and fitting for the helmet.  If they do cover it *fingers crossed*, they cover 100%.  Please send happy insurance vibes our way!

I mean, it won’t change our minds about doing this if our insurance doesn’t help, but it would be really nice if we didn’t have to cough a few thousand bucks out of our empty pockets.

Now, I’m just parroting the information given to me from the appointment, so don’t take what I say as the Word of Christ and set it in stone, okay?  But to give you an idea of how “off” her head is, asymmetry up to 3 mm is considered normal (no one’s head is perfect unless your mama’s vagina didn’t have to stretch at all to push you out... in which case, there are other issues more embarrassing than a flat head going on).  But anyway, once the asymmetry reaches 10 mm or more, a helmet is (apparently) no longer considered to be simply for cosmetic correction.  Supposedly, having moderate to severe plagiocephaly can lead to problems such as frequent ear infections, dental problems, and other issues.

April’s  discrepancy between the right and left cranial vaults is is at 13 mm.  I know.  Ugh.

So there you have it.  My kid is going to wear a helmet.

But again- how could anyone with half a heart and at least one brain cell say no to this?

At least she’ll have something protecting her skull while she learns to walk, right?

It’s such a bummer it’ll cover that amazing hair of hers. *sigh*

Current Mood: Alarmed

Tags: Kids, Plagiocephaly

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under My Girls, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.