Parents Choose A Simple Device To Reshape A Baby’s Ear
McMullen works as a clinical nutritionist, so she asked around and a few friends suggested a mold called an EarWell and a plastic surgeon named Dr. Melissa Doft in New York. She applied the mold, which adheres to the skin behind the ear and flattens or guides the ear closer to the head. McMullen’s daughter started the process when she was just 6 weeks old. After six weeks of ear molding her ear looked like any other kid’s.
“It rounded out her ear and cartilage completely,” says McMullen, who lives in Darien, Conn.. “And she never seemed to be uncomfortable or in pain.” McMullen says her insurance company covered the majority of the cost.
Doft credits the ease of the process to her patients’ youth. She started applying the EarWell devices to younger babies in 2010, after reading a study showing that the cartilage is most pliable when the baby is younger than six weeks.