for 4 years and fortunately, they got blessed with
a precious little girl. The parents of this 2 month
old baby who thought their baby's ears were
protruding weren't happy about her ears and
thought that their baby may be made fun of
when she got older and had to go to school, so
they took her to a plastic surgeon. Read what
she wrote below:
"My husband was rocking our two-month
old daughter on his knees when I walked
into the room and screamed: "WHAT
HAPPENED TO HER EARS?" He turned his
head, alarmed. "What happened?" he
said. "Her ears!" I said. "They're
huge!" ."Oh." He relaxed. Nothing was
really outstanding.
"But there was something outstanding:
her ears. From behind they loomed large,
like protruding handles. I'd never seen her
from this angle. Normally I was over her,
breastfeeding her, changing her, or
putting her to sleep. When I took her out
for summer walks, her dainty features and
luminous eyes always got so many
comments. "She's beautiful!" people
would say.
But lately I'd been noticing a new type of
comment: "She looks really smart!" Was
that the equivalent of saying an
unattractive woman had a "great
personality"?
Don't get me wrong: after four years of
infertility I was so grateful for my
daughter, who really is adorable. Trying to
get pregnant for so long meant I also
swore that I wouldn't be one of those
helicopter over-achieving parents, hoping
to get my kid on a path into Yale by age
two.
My husband and I were pretty laid
back, jeans and t-shirt type of people,
even though we'd both had cosmetic
surgery (him, a nose job; me, a stem cell
face lift.) But this wasn't just about looks
— it could affect how other kids would
treat her.
"I have big ears," said a friend to whom I
made the unfortunate choice of confessing
my ear worry without first checking out
hers.
"Oh, was it a problem for you?" I
innocently asked. "Well, aside from being
called Dumbo in grade school…" she said.
Argh.
What to do? Online mom forums were no
help, because anyone who asked about
the issue of big ears got attacked by the
other mothers who found their own kids'
protruding ears adorably yummy. (One
mother defended a questioner by saying,
"Kids are cruel, and most of you folks
wouldn't think twice about someone's
decision to circumcise their child or pierce
their ears, so what's the issue with this??")
"Newborn moms spend too much time
examining their babies because they have
too much time home alone with them,"
my doctor said. But then I turned her
around. "Oh, I see what you mean," he
added. He told me she'd probably grow
out of it, that it was due to her sleeping on
her back.
The plastic surgeon didn't agree. Yup,
that's where we took her after
investigating other options, like the Baby's
Bonnette from France, which was a
netting hat that promised to hold babies'
ears down during sleep, or the Ear Wells
from England, small ear-shaped plastic
"splints" that corrected ear deformities
and "bat ears," which is what my
daughter had. My husband wanted it done
professionally.
"Your daughter's ears are not going to
flatten out after she spends time on her
tummy," said Doctor David A. Staffenberg,
who specializes in craniofacial surgery.
(Boy, did I feel horrible when I was
chatting with another mother in the
waiting room who told me her daughter
needed surgery to split the skull bones
open.)
He said she was the perfect
candidate for Ear Wells, a more
cumbersome splint which shaped and
caged the ear in plastic and held it to a
baby's head. The only problem? We were
quite late to the game. It had taken me a
over a month to take action — and now
the cartilage was beginning to set.
"Some mothers come to me straight from
the hospital," said Nurse Practitioner
Amanda Young, who said she's splinted
about 250 babies' ears, and Dr.
Staffenberg ten times that amount. I
flinched at the cost — $350 for the first
pair, and then after ten days, if another
set was needed, another $250.
"It's cheaper than plastic surgery," said
Dr. Staffenberg, noting that from the age
of about 6 or 7 ears could be pinned back
in surgery under anesthesia, which can
cost around $8,000.
"And painless," Young added. She'd had
some six-month-old patients with
promising results, although she wouldn't
guarantee any for my baby.
"What's the harm?" my husband said.
Indeed. Aside from looking like she had a
Bluetooth on each ear, and the judgment I
got from anyone who saw it (until I started
lying and saying it was for an infection).
Oh, and the fact that she didn't like it,
demonstrated by the way she furiously
turned her head from side to side to fall
asleep. The left one came off after a day.
"Most babies don't notice it," Young said,
replacing the Ear Well free of charge. The
pair lasted almost until the next
appointment, and for the last few days we
taped the ears down with the medical
tape they'd given us. (The nurse
practitioner said that in the south, that's
how everyone does it!)
And guess what? Her ears improved. At the
appointment the staff agreed she didn't need
any more intervention. She was perfect.
…Except for her cheeks. Without protruding
ears, didn't they look rather large?
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