Parents Try to Make Sense of Baby’s Treatment Options

Posted on December 22, 2011

Ignorance for new parents can be like a disease. Suddenly your pediatrician tells you that the baby might need to see a cranial specialist. The word might suddenly takes on a whole new meaning and becomes just a bit overwhelming. You take the baby to a specialist and they talk about possible future issues with jaw alignment and other nasty possibilities to fill your head with for the holiday season.

There is no real problem yet, but if left untreated, there could be a chance for future problems. With a newborn baby, who in the their right mind wants to leave anything to chance?

So today’s consultation was either very good or somewhat bad. Good because things can be corrected easily and bad because there are some complications.

I have been blessed with an amazing daughter who is a very happy and healthy baby. There are so many people out there who have much more serious problems, so there is no room to complain. But dealing with your child’s health issues is much more taxing than dealing with your own.

If correcting the child’s balance and symmetry now can save her from future issues, of course we must do it. The fact that extra tummy time may also correct the problem by itself just isn’t good enough. And that’s where the trap is. Nobody wants to deal in the world of could haves and should haves years down the road – so whether this treatment is truly necessary or not, it must be done.

I’m sure every parent has found themselves in similar situations at one time or another, but it’s definitely a first for us. What we do know for sure is that the treatment won’t hurt Maddie and I guess that’s all we really need to know. It ultimately comes down to making the best decision for the baby with the information we have available. Like Denzell said in the movie “Training Day,” it’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove.”