Scaphocephaly, Shunt, and Helmet Q's

[delanie]

Angeliese had her shunt placed in on June 11th. She has been doing so well since except it kinda bothers me that her head is longer than it should be. I always saw the "lemon sign" on the ultrasound and was told it would go away before she was born but she was born with a longer head. So I did a little research and found a site called http://www.cranialtech.com. I found out that Angeliese has Scaphocephaly. I discussed with a craniofacial surgeon (who happened to be the same doc who do the plastic surgery to close Angeliese's back) and it appears that she will be able to get a helmet down the road to correct it. Oddly, they mention on the site about how the sutures are "fused" and that is why the head is longer but Angeliese's sutures are not fused at all yet still grew in this way...

So I have a few questions:
1. Was this brought on by SB/Hydro?
2. Has anyone experience using a helmet to correct head shape?
3. Has anyone had a baby born with the "lemon head/longer head size" and if they didn't use a helmet, did it grow to be normal over time?
4. Do any SB adults have this treatment or have irregularities in head shape as a baby?
5. Was head shape change after shunt placement, if so how long down the line?

Thanks in advance. I am trying to learn more about it as I pull up research studies but I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced it firsthand.


--Delanie

[hilmom]

Hi there - my daughter too has a longer head. though I have never heard of Scaphocephaly. I thought it was due to the Arnold Chiair malformation -the brainstem and cerebellum sitting lower along with the "lemon" effect make the head longer and narrower. My daughter's "crown" - where the hair starts from - isn't on the crown of her head but more on the back of her head so the hair above her crown grows forward/up the back of her head when typically hair there would be laying down/growing downward. (did that make any sense??) Is your daughter's hair like that? I know it seems like such an insignificant thing compared to everything else but I don't want my daughter to have weird hair - she's too pretty! I had also heard about helmeting before I had her but noone has mentioned anything. I asked the developmental peditrician we saw the other day if her head shape would change over the course of this first year since their brain grows so much. He didn't quite answer my question - but mentioned trying to lay her on the back of her head vs the side (kinda hard to do though). Anyways - I have no answers for ya - curious as well. Hopefully you'll get some helpful replies.

[bcain]

It is my understanding that the lemon sign disappears after about the 22nd week of gestation. It is often missed because of this. So I don't believe it contributes to the newborn's head shape. This site below offers some good advice.

http://www.cranialtech.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=73&Itemid=134