free medical help for plagiocephaly (mishaped head)?

Question

Does anyone know where I can get come type of help for cranial banding? My five month old little girl has a mishaped head and to help fix this the Physical Therapist has recommened Cranial banding. The problem here is that this procedure costs $2,000.00 which I don't have. The mishaped head is due to her troticollis that I am currently fixing. I have applied for State Medicaid,Florida Healthy Kids & KidCare and all of them have denied me for too much income. My husband does not make that much money and the people looking at his check stubs are saying no beacause they are looking at the net instead of the gross income. This condition is a birth defect & if not treated can lead to other problems like no verbal communication, eyesight being bad in one eye, brain developement issues. I should be able to get some type of help due to a birht defect. All I seem to have are dead ends with no sign of help. If anyone knows where I may find some help please let me know... Hopefully waiting

Answer 1

theres a company called hanger prosthetics and orthotics. i know theyre located in many states. if paying out of pocket they charge $1500 and they can break it up into payments. u can also use something called care credit. its like a credit card. you pay off certain amounts monthly, but theres no interest. my son went to the hanger in arizona and i dont know if they use the technology at all of them but they just scanned my sons head with what looked like a barcode scanner and all the info went into a computer to do the molding for his helmet. this is definately a lot less traumatizing for the child than the casting like most places do. and ive been told by more drs. it is more accurate than casting because in the casting the kids can move a little making it less accurate. hope this helps

Answer 2

My son had the same thing; plagiocephaly at birth due to the molding of his head in the womb, but you know all about that.
In Missouri we qualified for Medicaid through their First Guard plan, we were able to get my son his "helmut".

Have you tried any Children's Hospitals or even St. Judes? There is also the Shriners hospitals for kids (Missouri phone number is 816-923-1319). See if there are any early intervention programs for kids; Missouri has First Steps.

I'm sure you have been told the sooner to get your precious little girl in a cranial band the better. It really needs to be before she is one year old. We got my son into one at 11 months just under the deadline. We were able to get 80% correction to the shape of his skull over 8 months.

Another thing you could do is contact the State and find out what your medical rights are, if current insurance doesn't cover it, they might be able to help. It's funny sometimes funding comes from a source you didn't expect.

Gosh, I sure do feel for you and your daughter. My prayers are with you. Keep up the exercises for the torticollis they help tremendously.

Sometimes the place that does the cranial banding will give a discount for parents with no insurance and they will let you make payments over the course of treatment. Hanger is who did my son's band and they do offer a $500 discount and work with parents on cost. Their bands are also $2,000.

If you want to chat further email me at [e-mail]
I'm going to check my files to see if I can find anything else that might be of help to you. Good Luck!!!

Answer 3

My son had plagiocephaly and had a DOC band. I know that they do have payment plans available...the company is called Cranial Technologies. I recommend joining the yahoo group called Babies with Plagiocephaly....they have a lot of info on cost/insurance. I'm sure someone on the board will have direction for you. Also there is a group called Tortkids....good luck!

Answer 4

My little boy had torticollis also. We received free physical therapy through a local program but he did not have cranial banding. They mentioned it but said it would probably round out on it's own as he got older. He is three now and I can see slightly flatter spots but I don't think it is as noticeable to people who don't know he had a problem. I wouldn't worry about it right now, with her being so young and already having therapy to correct the torticollis she should have plenty of time for it to shape up.

Answer 5

I looked it up on the web. Doctors say in most cases, it will round out when she starts sitting up and crawling more, but there are many websites to go to with lots of good info. I have 4mnth old twins & their heads are misshappened, too, so I'm interested myself. I didn't realize the problems it could lead to. I thought it was just cosmetic! Thank you for asking this question.