Update on Matthew's Head

Yesterday was Matthew's appointment at BC Children's Hospital.

We first met with a Resident Assistant who did a basic check-up/assessment and asked some basic questions about Matthew's delivery and his development.  Matthew was amazing - he just stared at the doctor.  I'm sure he was thinking, "Who are you?".  He was very cooperative.  The doctor thought the blank stare that he was receiving from Matthew was hilarious.

After meeting with the Resident Assistant we met with Dr. Paul Steinbok, the head of pediatric neurosurgery.  He did a quick visual assessment of Matthew's head shape (so quick, in fact, that just by looking at Matthew he could tell that his left ear is slightly more forward than his right) and then measured that width of Matthew's head and the length of his head.  A "normal" human has a width-to-length ratio between 0.75 to 0.90.  Matthews was 1.0 (his width is the exact same as his length).  The doctor figured that there was no need for any helmet or other sort of intervention on our part; over the next couple of years his head will round out and will probably end up at around 0.95.  As his hair grows in a little more his misshapen head will be hidden even more.

The exact terms for Matthew's head shape is:  Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly.  This is actually an interesting article that I just came across now (while googling the spelling of above terms!):  http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi/content/114/4/970.full

Dr. Steinbok also reassured us that Matthew's brain was not being affected at all by his head shape.

So all in all, great news!  We're glad (for Matthew's sake and for our bank accounts' sake!) that we don't have to get him a helmet.  I'm glad we pushed for the appointment at BC Children's Hospital so that we got an expert's opinion.