Plagiocephaly

Don't ask me how to pronounce it but it stands for a head anomaly or as we call it, a flat head. We took Sam to Children's Hospital in Seattle yesterday to get his head checked out. There are five areas that they look at and they are rated between 0-3. 0 would be a perfect head which the Dr. said no one has. 1 is mild, 2 moderate, 3 severe. The first thing is the only area where he scored in the moderate category. It is called Posterior Flattening (flattening in the back). The other things they look at are Ear Misalignment (one ear higher or more in front than the other), Forehead Asymmetry, (a bulge on one side of the forehead or another which Sam has a little bit of), Neck Involvement (if the neck muscles don't develop properly it causes one side to be really tight), and Facial Asymmetry (where the face doesn't line up like it should). The Dr. said that for kids who score a 2 or 3 in the Posterior Flattening area they usually recommend a helmet. He scored a 2. But, she also said that there is usually quite a bit of improvement between five and seven months of age. So, we are going to continue doing what we have been doing and see how the next month or two goes. We keep him upright or on his tummy quite a bit of the day when he is awake. We also do what we can to get him to look to his left. The more he does that and gets even better head and neck control the more he will look that way when he is sleeping too. While we were at Children's we were able to meet with a Physical Therapist as well. She looked at his neck muscles and gave us some exercises to help him be able to have full range of motion when looking to the left. I'll keep everyone posted over the next couple of months on how he is doing.