My daughter needs a cranial helmet for brachycephaly. Let me start out by venting my frustration with my pediatrician! My daughter was born c-section in August with the most perfectly rounded head anyone had ever seen. It was the talk of everyone! She is a beautiful girl - except her head is now flat in the back.
Our doctors stress 24/7 the need to lie our babies down on our backs to reduce the risk of SIDS. What they DON'T tell us is that you need to watch for the flattening of the head 24/7, too! My daughter is now 5 mos old and has developed a condition that warrants a cranial remolding helmet to repair. Of course I blame myself all day long. :( Here is my question:
We have had an evaluation at the Star Cranial Center in Dallas. They appear to be top notch in this field but they are not covered by my insurance network. The scan was done using the latest in medical technology and my baby was scanned and her head projected on a screen as a 3D image in less than 8 secs. It was amazing! No stress to her whatsoever. My insurance company will not cover Star Cranial, as they are out of network for us, and will only cover a PORTION of a helmet if we go elsewhere to Hanger's. I have not visited Hanger's as of yet, but have spoken with a rep about the procedures there. I'm not sure how comfortable I am having my daughter's skull corrected where they also cast knees, elbows, hips, etc...and oh...also cast baby skulls. Am I wrong for wanting this done at the Cranial Center where that is ALL they do and have the best, least invasive equipment for correcting this sort of problem?
So....okay, Moms....have any of you used either facility? I'm all ears! Thanks for your time and God Bless!
I have not been in your situation, however, I have been in a sutuation when I was told the BEST Dr. was "not in my network".
WELL...at our house.....network or no network....we go to the BEST Dr for whatever we need.
You can't put a price on health and safety.
If your daughter was born in August, then she's probably getting old enough to hold her head up, right? What about trying to get her to sleep in different positions. I know they say that babies should sleep on their backs, but think about the generations of now-adults (like me and probably you too) who were put to sleep on their tummies because that was the recommendation back then and we survived! I know countless moms even today who have to put their children to sleep on their tummies because they had GERD so bad that they couldn't sleep any other way without choking on stomach acid. If it makes you nervous to put her to sleep on her tummy or sides at night, what about during naps when you can watch her? companies. Your daughter's head is still soft that it will fix itself. If it were me, I'd save my money and look for alternative sleep positions.
Tracy, you are not wrong for wanting top notch care for your daughter! Now, can you afford to do it at Star Cranial? I know this might not be everybodys opinion but I would do ANYTHING to get the best in this situation, by saying anything, I mean trying to make every effort even if it meant financing, however this might not be your solution. I hope you can find great references of other kids that have had this procedure at Hangers! Good luck to you guys.
I know exactly what you are going through. The exact same thing happened to my son. You may want to check out Cranial Technologies to see if they are on your insurance. http://www.cranialtech.com/ They only do cranial bands also. We used them and the results were great. The staff was very good with our son. They actually weren't on our insurance, but had a deal with the company to offer us a reduced cost and it all went to our deductible. Please don't blame yourself. I know I did, and it was a tough decision to go through it all. I was afraid I'd be putting my precious baby through so much discomfort. The thing is, he was absolutely fine. He barely noticed it. I have pictures of him sleeping happily just an hour after he first got the band. There are some good support groups on Yahoo Groups too, so check those out... people who have used all different centers including Star, Hanger and Cranial Tech.
we went through this about 11 years ago. our insurance decided they would pay at in network coverage when I pointed out the only other treatment would be surgery which they did have to cover and would be worse for my son and more expensive than the helmet for them.
Tracy,
My son had his done at Cranial Technologies in Dallas. We were very happy with them. They are the ones doing the formally conjoined twins. Have you joined any of the plagio support groups yet? I was a member of this one: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/PositionalPlagioSupp... and it has a ton of great info including pros and cons of all the different facilities. We chose CT because we had heard negative things about STAR. He is 3 1/2 (with a beautiful noggin :) ) so I don't remember what the probs were, but I do remember others having concerns with a facility that does everything else. If you do end up needing the casting, it is a piece of cake. My son cried for like 2 seconds and then just sat there playing with a toy will the lady did it. It ended up being nothing like what I had imagined. Good luck on your search!
