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Our baby Plagiocephaly helmet fund

Hello, and thank you for visiting our Go Fund Me page. Our beautiful little baby boy River, was born last September after a traumatic birth - 2 failed venthouse suction attempts and 4 forceps attempts. He was then kept in for a week after birth and put on an antibiotic drip for the first 7 days of his life and is still prone to infections now at almost 8 months old. The forceps delivery lead to him having torticollis, which is a neck muscle problem which makes turning the head more difficult, and this in itself caused him to lie on one side no matter how much we and others tried for his first 3 months. The tight muscle in his neck meant he would just not move it to the other side. Physiotherapy has helped his torticollis improve, though there is still work to be done. His birth and subsequent problems lying on one side have lead to his skull plates shaping incorrectly. It was evident at birth and worsened in those early months, and has not and cannot correct itself on its own.

 
We were genuinely concerned by the shape/appearance of the back of his skull, and after many, many visits to GP's and finally a hospital Paediatrician months later were told that he has severe Plagiocephaly - an abnormality in the shape of his head. We do believe this was caused by the numerous unsuccessful and traumatic attempts to delivery him, damaging his neck muscles, and leading to him being unable to turn his head in those early months. We have now decided after much painstaking research to have him fitted with a specialist plagiocephaly orthotic helmet to help his head grow / fuse properly, and this must be worn for 23 hours a day for the next 6 months to try and correct his head shape/bone growth.

 
The cost of the treatment including consultations, helmet manufacture, fitting and follow up appointments is just over £2,000 - this is not available on the NHS even if your doctor agrees it is needed, and so we are funding the plagiocephaly helmet treatment ourselves and hope to raise as much as we can towards this cost. It really seems unfair this treatment isn't available on the NHS. People often use the analogy if your teeth are crooked & not straight you can wear a brace to correct your teeth, but yet there is nothing they will do if your baby's head isn't formed properly and a skull is far far more important than teeth. All parents want the very best for their children so we have decided this is something little River deserves. We have been trying to find the funds ourselves, but it has been hard, and so were advised to try and fundraise for our little boy.

 
River's Plagiocephaly measurements have been classed as severe, and untreated this may lead to him being unable to wear a bike helmet, or glasses when grown up, due to the asymmetrical way it makes the ears not be level, and his head shape being a parallelogram, also with a large bone lump on the back of his head. Not to mention of course the cruel way some other kids can be... if untreated his head shape will be like this for the rest of his life, and we feel we owe it to him to try and correct it while there is still time. He is our perfect precious adorable little boy.

 
Thank you for taking the time to read this. We greatly appreciate any donations made towards the cost of River's helmet treatment.

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Donations 

  • Simon Bate
    • £5 
    • 7 yrs
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Organizer

Andy Tebbutt
Organizer

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