Need a referral for Plagio - please help!

[kekouan]

I'm going to see the doctor again today about DS's flat head - it's got worse in the last 6 weeks and I'm desperate for him to be referred, but worried the docs won't take me seriously again.

Please give me tips on how I can demand a referral.. really don't want to be fobbed off again!!

anybody?

f-ing HV fobbed me off again, in a pretty terrible fashion. i'm furious.

Hi Kekouan, just saw your post now and hope it went OK with the doctor - my DD was referred for plagio; had a very understanding GP though (HV was useless so went straight to the doctor.) As it turned out, we didn't need to go any further and now that she has a full head of hair you can't notice it - although I'll be sure to tell her never to shave her hair! It was a very worrying time for us, so just wanted to send you some +++++++ vibes.

oh, thank you!!

Not sure what a referral would accomplish, but I do want to be taken seriously about it.

As he's a boy and likely to have short hair then it will still be noticeable, and you can see that it's starting to affect the symmetry of his face (one side of his forhead is being pushed slightly forwad, and his ears are already VERY wonky).

Poor thing... it makes me so sad.

This is not a post suggesting you leave it - thought I'd make that clear to start with!

My ds2 had a very flat head on the left at back of head when he was a baby. He'd been very poorly as a newborn, so had a check with paed at 3.5 months. He said nothing to worry about - that the plates (sorry can't remember term he used) had fused too early on one side. I took his word for it.

Ds2 now 7.5 and his head is fine, well is flat at the back and will strongly advise against him shaving his head when he is older, but his head has levelled out and everything looks ok and not wonky. When I look at photos of him when he was a toddler he did look very strange and I can't believe I didn't worry more. I think perhaps it was less noticeable to us as we saw him all the time. My mother was very worried! His head looked as if it stuck out at the front on the side where his head was flat at the back. His ears were wonky.

Hope they take you seriously.

Asfaik you won't get treatment for plagio in this country on the nhs. Of course, you may want a referral to make sure it isn't being caused by anything else, so I would ask your dr for a second opinion if you are worried.

Both my dts had very flat heads. One has pretty much rounded out, the other is still quite noticeable. It was only cosmetic in their cases, and although I looked into treatments, I don't regret not doing anything about it.

How old is he? Have you tried repositioning?

I've tried repositioning, but it doesn't seem to be getting any better - in fact he seems to be getting flatter at the back, and now his head just looks lumpy. One eye looks bigger than the other and his ears are very wonky (one is about an inch further forward than the other)

He's just over 3 months - started repositioning when he was 6 weeks old... now he's getting more mobile though and it's getting harder to keep him in one position as he will just wriggle back onto his back.

Will just have to put him on his side, but he even manages to wriggle out of that, even if we pin him down with towels either side.

not that he's a very wriggly baby or anything

I really want to referral to make sure that someone who knows what they're doing (paed/ortho) gives him more than a cursory glance.

At the moment if I mention it to any of the so called 'health professionals' they sort of snort at me, and tell me it'll sort itself out, without even really glancing at DS... really REALLY pisses me off.

Grrr

It sometimes helps if you put blankets under the cot on one side, so they sort of end up rolling over onto the side.

We had soem blankets under, then some on top on the other side, so they didn't roll into the cot bars. It is hard though, when they have gotten so used to laying on one side.

good luck with getting that referral.

blankets under the mattress I mean. Sorry!

YAY!! GP finally took me seriously, examined DS properly, drew me a diagram to explain plagio properly, and said that if it doesn't seem to be improving by 5 months then he will refer me to the physio for positioning help.

Very happy about this... he was very good and explained it all very well

Phew!!

Bugger the HV.. just goin to avoid at all costs!! Would have been nice to have them available for feeding advice, but hey - there is always mumsnet :-D

Great news!!

GLad your GP was so helpful!

Have a look at www.plagiouk.co.uk - to find the contact details of the three specialists in this country to whom you can self-refer and who will see you for free. They provide the helmets, but you don't have to have one if you don't want. They will give you an honest appraisal (and in some cases a scan of the head).

Sorry - just seen your post about the GP taking you seriously. I would add that you need to be doing the repo NOW - as at five months it's getting quite late. My ds's head did not get better when he started sitting up like all the GPs and HVs sad - it got worse and he needed a helmet at 10 months. Had I been told about repo techniques, I think I could have avoided a helmet. The repo tips at www.plagiouk.co.uk really helped a friend of mine and she did avoid a helmet for her second dd.

I have been doing repositioning while he's been fairly immobile - the reason he'll wait until 5 months to refer me to the physio is that they will show me ways of repositioning him once he can turn over and wriggle around.

email me if you want

My DD had plagio

mushy31894atfsmaildotnet

Do not wait

There is a short window to get this fixed

What was the assymetry?

thanks NAB3 - have emailed you.

Have replied