EARS

When the audiologist made her rounds in the hospital, she commented on Baby J's ear shape.  "He's a candidate for ear splinting," she explained, "You should at least go visit with the plastic surgeon."  And so it began.

If she had never made that comment, I would have never thought twice about baby J's floppy right ear fold.  He certainly didn't have Dr. Spock ears and his hearing had nothing to do with the shape.  But the mommy guilt kicked in!  What if he gets teased in middle school because of his ear shape and I had the power to help it at a tiny age?  Seriously, this thought spiraled out of control and I found myself trucking back and forth to the clinic about six times over two and a half weeks!  Babies ears are extremely pliable for the first six weeks.  As the estrogen makes its way out of his system, his ear will harden.  Small splints now will allow his ear shape to harden in the correct way, potentially avoiding the need for plastic surgery in the future (and this is NOT going to happen!).

The plastic surgeon's nurse fit these small bendy plastic splints in his ear and taped them securely.  They did not cause any pain for Baby J- just a hassle for me!  I couldn't get these wet and I needed to be careful when dressing. I should have taken a "before" photo- because they definitely changed!  Sheesh ... success with a plastic surgeon at such a young age!