Babies name	Charlie McAllister
Age	Born 11th October 2005
Mothers name	Sharon McAllister
About Charlie McAllister

Charlie was born on the 11th October 2005 and he weighed 7lbs 1oz. My labour started naturally my waters broke but I then had no contractions. They started me the next morning on the drip to bring on the contractions but 30 hours after my waters broke I had only dilated 5cms. They then decided to give me an emergency cesaerean as they said Charlie was too big for my pelvis.

I first noticed Charlie’s head going flat at 3 weeks old. I mentioned it to my health visitor who said it would sort itself as he got older and started sitting up more. I looked up on the internet myself and saw that it was a condition called Plagiocephaly/Brachycephaly. I noticed Charlie was keeping his head to the right hand side all the time where it was really flat and I took him to a cranial osteopath. I paid for this myself at £17 a session and they told me that Charlie had Torticollis. He had to have about 10 sessions, which sorted this out. He then had full movement of his head. I tried repositioning with Charlie from about 3 months old when I saw the flat spot was getting worse. This helped to some extent but the Plagiocephaly turned into Brachycephaly.

When Charlie was about 4 months old, I went back to my doctor to ask for a referral for Yorkhill hospital and the doctor said no problem and referred Charlie. About 2 weeks later we got a letter saying it would be 17 weeks before we got an appointment for Charlie for Yorkhill. When I got this letter I went back to a different GP who said to me that all babies had funny shaped heads and not to worry!! At this point I still did not know the helmets were not available on the NHS. To this day I still have not had an appointment from Yorkhill Hospital for Charlie!! (2nd June 2006).

About 1 week later I went to the baby show at the SECC where I met Claire who had a stall on Plagiocephaly. I spoke to Claire who gave me leaflets on the condition. This is when I found out that the helmets had to be paid for privately. When I got home I got back on the internet and emailed one of the helmet providers. They then gave me Claire’s email address and I have been in contact with her ever since.

I made an appointment to go to London to Medistox when Charlie was just coming up for 6 months old. The day we went Charlie got scanned and his Brachycephaly measured 94% and his Plagiocephaly 5mms (which is classed as normal) although the right hand side of his head was totally flat and was at an angle from the neck up. The right hand side of his forehead was also more prominent than the left hand side. Two weeks later we transferred to the clinic in Leeds, which we drove to, to get Charlie’s helmet. Charlie was 6 months and 1 week old when he got his helmet. After 5 days we went for his first review and the Brachycephaly had already come down from 94% to 92% in 5 days, his Plagiocephaly was still 5mms.

I went to deliver the petition to Scottish Parliament with Claire, Mandy and two other mums. The NHS should pay for this treatment for our babies’ as we had to fundraise to get the money for Charlie’s helmet ourselves.

At his next review, after 4½ weeks of wearing the helmet, his Brachycephaly had come down from 94% to 88% and his head had popped out 6mms at the back. His Plagiocephaly was still 5mms but we are now on week 6 and I think his Plagiocephaly has sorted a little and his head has definitely popped out more at the back. The difference in Charlie’s head in such a short time is amazing. I was sceptical and wondered whether to go ahead with the helmet treatment but I am glad we did as it is definitely the best thing we could have done for Charlie.

We never got any advice from our GP or HV about repositioning, the mattresses and pillows you can buy to try and prevent/help this condition. We were never even told what it was called, or that it was even a condition! I found it all out myself via the internet.