Head Shape Clinic Appointment

On Friday we had an appointment at the Stollery Children's Hospital to assess if J would need a helmet.

Here is the scale they used to assess the severity of plagiocephaly.  

J scored 4.5/15 and it was determined she would not need a helmet. 

We are fortunate that J took to tummy time and sleeps now exclusively on her tummy. We are hopeful that with continued improvement of her torticollis asymmetries will resolve. 

While we would have made the necessary investment in travel and doctors appointments if J had needed a helmet we were relieved. We could not imagine making the 7.5 hour drive (plus breaks for washroom & feeding) every two weeks for helmet adjustments. Traveling with a baby is not my idea of fun. Our first night in the big city we decided to venture from our downtown hotel to a restaurant a mere 15 minute walk away. J was so upset about our dining digs that we had to request the server change our order to take out. We apologized profusely to the guests around us and servers and walked back to the hotel. It wasn't until late after we returned to hotel, fed & changed J that we had our dinner. That night J would not sleep in the hotel crib. Cue co-sleeping and getting kicked in the head & chest. Actually after she settled down she slept soundly. I, by contrast, fretted. I hardly slept a wink. We were so thankful to finally arrive home after three days away and sleep in our own beds. It seemed like we were gone longer than a week.

We have work to do yet on stretches for her torticollis. Sometimes I think we have made such progress then another moment wonder if we will ever resolve the head tilt or as you may notice in the above photo she hikes her shoulder up to her ear when she is tense. I wonder if her new venture into crawling sometimes causes her to tighten up. The assessor also noted that J has a discrepancy in leg length and foot size so we have to look into that shortly.