J has always had a very odd shaped head, bless him. But with the covid pandemic, health care provision through the NHS has been at an all time low, We have never seen a health visitor, He has never seen a doctor, I don't even know what he weighs. It has been a very strange time for everyone, but especially worrying for things like this, that haven't received the attention they probably required.

We mentioned it over the phone to our health visitor a few months ago who referred us to online physio because J had difficulty turning his head (torticollis) but as you can imagine, that is extremely difficult to assess and it hasn't stopped the constant worrying that physio itself may not be helping. I have tried everything within my power to encourage the pressure off the back of his head, from special pillows, to creating little nests to support him sleeping on his side, to fulfill the various forms of repositional therapy physio described, but with the restricted muscle movement this wasn't always helpful. We have even tried bribing more movement with toys distributed in specific places, but unfortunately none of this seems to have made much of a difference. J still has a predominant side, insinuating he still has the torticollis. The back of his head, on the one side is very flat, causing it to push forwards into his forhead and from the top it is a very odd shape.

The NHS simply aren't interested in resolving the problems caused by Js restricted muscle movement, it is deemed a cosmetic treatment. However, we are now in a swings and roundabouts situation where the Torticollis has actually made the shape of his head quite predominant, which makes turning his head even harder, which means it is not going to improve by itself.

We have had a consultation with a specilist who has told us J has a type of Plagiocephaly (the head is flattened on 1 side, causing it to look asymmetrical; the ears may be misaligned and the head looks like a parallelogram when seen from above, and sometimes the forehead and face may bulge a little on the flat side) and Brachycephaly (he back of the head becomes flattened, causing the head to widen, and occasionally the forehead bulges out-you can often see this in photos)

We have been told the best window for achieving results in this line of treatment is between 4 and 7 months, when babies skulls have the biggest growth spurt. J is now 5 months old, so ideally we need to start this ASAP. We can go for scans as soon as next week if we can raise the money.

No-one deserves to face the prospect of multiple future problems caused by something they where born with that COULD be resolved ( problems with the eyes, ears and jaw/dental problems are very common knock on effects of Plagiocephaly/Brachycephaly because the skull isn't aligned properly).

The NHS advise that this condition will resolve itself by around 18 months of age, but this is not the case. Once a baby is past a certain point of development their skulls aren't able to be re positioned, and although the skull deformation might naturally not get worse (because babies sleep less, sit up more, aren't putting pressure on their heads so much after 6 months old) the problem also isn't going to just resolve itself. It will simply stay the same, There is no funding on the NHS to treat Flat Head Syndrome as it is considered to be a cosmetic issue, however other countries such as the USA recognize this as a medical issue, which is just insane to me.

The first (and hopefully last!) round of assessing, measuring, scans, helmet fittings cost £2000, total. Yep, thats a lot of money to magically find right now. But i'm hoping if a few of Js fanclub on facebook can donate a fiver each then maybe that £2000 wont be as unreachable as it feels right now. I have the first £500, He is booked in for the scans and assessment next week. I will stick every penny i can in there, But alone that is still not going to be even close to £2000.

if i asked you to lend me a fiver, would you? if the answer to that is yes, then please, stick it here. This boy is everything<3 and i can't wait for you all to get to meet him.