Saturday, March 29, 2008

Cranial Band Avoided

On Wednesday Sophia had an appointment at the Head Shape Clinic at Children's Hospital. She has always had a tendency to look to her left, especially while sleeping. Over time she has developed a mild flat spot on her left side. While having Sophia's immunizations the health care nurse recommended I take her to the head shape clinic to see if she has tight neck muscles that prevented her from looking to the right freely. So off we went to the clinic. The Dr. and physiotherapist at the clinic were soo nice. They said because Sophia's adjusted age is only 4 months that we were in a good position to work on her head shape without the aid of a cranial band. Usually by the time they are 5 to 6 months the head starts to harden. Because Sophia was born 6 weeks early she was counted as a 4 month old. They gave us some new ways of holding her to strengthen her neck muscles and some tips to help her look right more often. By the way a cranial band would involve her wearing it for 23 hours a day for about 4 months! No thank you. She would basically look like Magneto from Xmen (http://www.zone-sf.com/images/xmen3c.jpg.) Also they cost $1,500 and are not covered by medical. However if she did have to wear one I would make it adorable and decorate it like a princess. So now EVERYTHING we do we do is on the right. I stripped her crib of her mobile and bumper pads (which I guess aren't safe anymore anyways, but they are cute!) Anything that would entice her to look left is gone. I went and bought her Fisher Price's "Ocean Wonders" which hangs on the side of the crib and is a little aquarium that plays music, has lights and a little fishy that squirms around. She LOVES it!! It even comes with a remote so I can sneakily activate it from the doorway. At her nap today I layed her down to watch her ocean wonderland and she actually nodded off to sleep without the aid of mommy!!!! I was ecstatic! I really hope she continues to be entertained by this deal-io. The main perk however is that it keeps her head looking to the right.

I always joked that Sophia was like Derek Zoolander. He couldn't turn left and Sophia can't look right. Or I sing Beyonce's hit "To The Left, To The Left"


Anyways joking aside we are soo happy we can still do something about Sophia's little misshapen head. Some babies have it so bad that their facial features are shifted or one side of their face is much broader than the other. The Dr. Said Sophia has no changes to her cute face. It's as perfect as can be. He said that she probably was looking to the left in the womb and she never broke her habit out in the real world. He did say however that MY head and face were a little crooked, ha.....nice!
Here is Sophia enjoying her "Ocean Wonders"


After she woke up from her nap...sleepy girl

No this is not a cranial band...it's her tuque. We were getting ready to go for a walk

And I am throwing this one in just because it is ADORABLE....(again taken just before we went for a walk the other day)....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Laura,

Glad to know that little Sophia's head will be normal. My little nephew had the same thing when he was tiny. They had to do the same things the Dr. told you to do with Sophia. Now Aiden is almost 4 yrs. old and his head is just fine. Good luck with the teething...that's always a hard thing.

How much longer is Gina going to live in Calgary? It will be hard for you when she is gone, but probably even harder for her. At least Sara will still live nearby.

Take care,
Love,
Manuela

Anonymous said...

Good words.