Eli's New Look

At around 4 months, Eli's pediatrician told us that he was a little concerned about the back of his head being flat, so he suggested we go to Cranial Technologies (http://www.cranialtech.com/), where they specialize in making bands for children to wear to help with this kind of thing. Because it is now recommended that babies sleep on their backs, 1 in 10 babies need to wear these bands. Cranial Technologies told us they see 300-400 children per week! They said if the back of the head (or in some children's cases, the side) flattens out, the brain will grow in other areas, like to the front or the sides. They said correcting the issue is partly cosmetic and partly medical. The medical piece is twofold. One is if the spinal chord isn't in the center of the neck, then it isn't as protected on all sides. The other is that if there isn't enough room in the back, it pushes everything forward and leaves less room in the front for the sinus cavities and everything to grow, so it can cause sinus/congestion/and even under bite issues later. It can also cause the face to be asymmetrical. They took pictures of his head (see below, such a little cutie) and showed them to us on a big computer monitor. You could tell where his ears weren't in the middle of his head from front to back and where the head is starting to grow out above his ears because it has less room to grow towards the back, it's being pushed in other directions. They said Eli's case wasn't the worst, but they definitely recommended going forward with the band. Eli is completely fine developmentally, thankfully, but we are taking this precautionary measure to avoid issues in the future. They did say if you don't correct it, sometimes they have trouble wearing helmets later on (football, bike, etc.) and we just can't have that =) The DOC Band (as it's officially called) does not correct any growth that has already happened, it merely guides new growth that Eli will have, which at this age is a LOT!

We went for the first time on April 28th where they did the fitting for the band. Eli did SO good.

Daddy & Eli playing in the waiting room.

We went back Monday (May 12th) to receive Eli's band. Chris was out of town, so my mom went with us. They put it on and then came back and checked for red spots every few minutes. If there was a red spot, they took the band and adjusted it. It really didn't seem to bother him at all (as you can see).  By the way, he LOVED this horse. Mom would bounce him on it, and when she stopped he would wiggle his whole body trying to make it bounce again haha. So cute! 

They had us leave for a couple of hours (where mom and I proceeded to drive around Dallas for 45 minutes and not find one restaurant HAHA) then come back and see how he did. They adjusted it again at that time and sent us on our way. 

They make wraps/decorations for the bands that are really cute, so we'll probably do something like that to spice it up a little =)

They said one thing that will happen is the band will make the baby hot and they will sweat a lot at first. They said no more footed pajamas at night and to keep him in short sleeve and no pants during the day (hey, that's easy). And no socks because the feet will need to let the heat out now. 

Sleeping like a log....

He is doing really great with the band. He has slept in it 2 nights so far and slept great. He will wear the band for 23 hours a day, only taking it off for bath time (when we also clean the band with alcohol). They really aren't sure how long he will need to wear the band, anywhere from 2-5 months probably. We go back every 7-10 days to have the band adjusted.

My mom was telling me about how I had to wear special shoes when I was a kid because my feet turned in really bad. Not only that, but I had to wear the corrective shoes on the wrong feet. She said every single time we went somewhere, someone would stop and tell her that my shoes were on the wrong feet. She said it was high maintenance (cleaning, putting powder, etc.) and as my feet grew, they had to get a new pair. I think it's funny that we are going through something similar with Eli. I know it will go by quickly and he won't even remember it.

This was a little overwhelming and scary for us at first, but the more we've learned about it and talked to others that have been through this, we realize it's really not a big deal. We are so thankful that Eli is happy and healthy!!