Head on a Stick

Sadie has been wearing her Doc-Band for almost 3 weeks & we go in regularly for head checks. Unfortunately, her head is growing slower than we hoped for, so it looks like she will have to wear it longer than I wanted. We went in after she wore it for a week & her head had grown 1 mm, which is not very much, so instead of coming back every week, they asked her to come back every 2 weeks. We went in again this week & it had only grown 2 mm. Most babies have rapid head growth until 6 months old, then it tends to slow down. She didn't get hers put on until 7 months, so I knew it would be slow growth, but not this slow. I guess I should have known because she has been petite & grown slowly since she was born. At this rate, they think she could wear it for 3-4 months instead of the 2-3 that we originally hoped for. Ideally, they would like to see her head grow 11-14 mm, primarily on the left side. Unless she hits a growth spurt, this Doc-Band will stay put for a while.

The good news is that she still enjoys her appointments. They have a lot of cool toys I wish I could take home with me!

Besides measuring her head every time we visit, they take off her helmet & re-shape it to fit her changing head circumference. The cool thing is that they made a solid mold of her head before we started this process & every time we bring her in, they compare her current head shape to the head mold. They put on a stocking over her head so we can compare them as closely as possible, but it's pretty neat to see the visual changes. And who else has their head on a stick?

I guess this is one of those things we will stick in her closet until she is old enough & then we can show it to her :)