We had the appointment today to get the boys all measured up to see if they would need helmets. And finally get word on what the X-Rays looked like that they took last week.
It turns out that both boys have do Plagiocephaly, aka Flat Head. Although they are very different types of Plagiocephaly, neither one has anything more severe. It turns out there are all kinds of Cephalic Disorders. Of the ones that actually require treatment Positional Plagiocephaly is the least dangerous of them. The reason that they took the X-Rays was to look for all of the other problems that come along with it, like...the brain not growing correctly or skull bones fusing to each other or the neck. The X-Rays showed that none of these are a problem with Kevin or Alex, both just have Positional Plagiocephaly.
They do 2 measurements to see if a baby has Positional Plagiocephaly.
The first is a measurement compares the diagonal length difference from the back right to front left versus the back left to front right of the head. Anything under a 6mm difference is considered fine. From 6 to 10 mm they suggest treatment, but it is the parents choice. Any thing over 10mm and they say its pretty much necessary.
The second measurement is a percentage based on the difference between the width and the depth of their heads. The "normal" range for this measurement is 80%-90%.
Alex's percentage is 91%, which the doctor said he would not normally recommend treatment for. However his diagonal measurement is 14mm which is well into the range that needs a helmet.
Kevin's diagonal measurement is 8mm so he is in that gray area where he would not really need treatment for it if we didn't want to. However is width to depth ( or is it depth to width, I don't remember...I was always good at math and there were too many numbers for even me to keep up with them all ) ratio is 96%. So he needs a helmet to help correct that.
The Doctor said that they cannot say ahead of time how long they will need to wear the helmets. Although he did say that it is very good that they got checked now. The skull grows very fast at this young of an age. The doctor offered a guess that they might be in the helmets for as little as 2-4 months. On the other hand in most cases parents don't bring in their kids to check them out until they are 6 months old, and then the average is to wear the helmet until they are 14-16 months old. So many thanks to our regular doctor for having us get the boys checked out this young.
Next step is the insurance. Since this problem is pretty common now days (some numbers suggest that 40% of children should have helmets at some point) insurance companies often deny it, saying that the parents keeping the children on their backs is the cause of the problem. However it turns out that multiples are also a really big cause of Plagiocephaly ( some numbers I have seen suggest that up to 60% of multiple births require a helmet ) . This is because there is not enough room in the womb for the skulls to grow normally. Since their heads have always been a little flat the doctor said the reason for them developing Plagiocephaly is likely the fact that they are twins. Apparently insurance companies are more likely to cover Plagiocephaly helmets when the problems are caused by birth, so my fingers are crossed.
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