The Earwell

Not sure how many of you know this, but our little Aramis was born with a deformed ear.  Looking at it on it's own, I guess you wouldn't know, but compared to his other ear you would.  His left ear is kinda folded down, like a little cauliflower ear.  Unfortunately, no one said anything to us about it (doctors or nurses….) so we didn't know there was a way to fix it early on.  I thought he would need a surgery when he was older if we decided to fix it, which is an option.  The other is called the Earwell.

After my mom and Nick's mom both mentioned something about him being made fun of at school because of his ear, I realized his cute little elf ear might become a problem when he was older.  Yes, kids are perfect just how they are, but kids are also cruel.  So, I did some research and found a plastic surgeon blog where he talked about the Earwell, and how it is used to reshape a baby's ear in the first two months of life.  The problem is not too many docs out there do it.  There was a list of providers in Utah who did it on the Earwell website, there were only three.  Luckily, one was in Salt Lake, so I gave him a call.  

It was about a 2 1/2 week wait to get in.  I was very afraid we would miss our window; if the treatment isn't started in the first month, it's unlikely it will work.  Fortunately, the doctor explained to us at the appointment that breast fed babies have a larger window, because due to mommy's estrogen, their cartalige stays soft longer.  So he was optomistic it would work, and we decided to go ahead and do it.

The only problem is we are moving and will not be here for the duration of the treatment.  It takes about 6-8 weeks, and we are leaving here in 3.  I told the doctor after watching the tutorial, I felt comfortable doing it if he wanted to show me, and he agreed.  He will go over with me the steps  of how to apply the device every time we go in so I can finish the treatment in Iowa.  This plastic surgeon was a very kind and generous man, and we are very glad we found him, and are also grateful for everyone else who helped make this possible for little Aramis.

His normal right ear

His left ear, you can see its folded over, knobby and pointed

We had to shave his hair to apply it

The outer part

The little retractor piece that pulls the deformed ear up

The covering to hold it all in place

And here he is all finished, hopefully it yields some good results for him, and we spare him a surgery when he is older.