Anyone's baby had to wear the helmet to correct plagio?

[marinkitty]

Found out today that Mia may have to wear a helmet to correct her flat spot (I say spot, but it is really the whole back of her head - it resembles the Half Dome) and I am very freaked out about it. Won't she hate it (she hates hats already)? Won't it stunt her development by making her head heavier? How long do they typically have to wear it? Does it actually work? If there is anyone out there that has been through this, some insight would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Holly

[Marisa6826]

Holly-

I'm sorry to hear about Mia. It's so rough when all of a sudden there's something not right with our little ones.

Do a search of the archives for "plagio" and "helmet". There were threads about it not too long ago.

There are a couple Mommies on the board who have experience with this. One of them is "vikivoly" . Try looking her up in the profiles. If she's not listed there, you will find her posts about the plagio and can PM her that way.

Hope this helps.

Good luck and give a big hug to Mia!

-m

[KimberleyDawn]

Hi Holly,
Marisa is right get in touch with "vikivoly". Also "MyFirstBaby" went through this and is a fountain of positive information. She also posted some pics of her son's various helmets and he was one cool dude:).
Kim

[amyff]

Hi Holly,
My adorable little girl has been wearing a helmet/band to correct her plagiocephaly for the last 2 and a half months. She had a very flat spot on the back right side of her head. I can answer any questions that you have about our experience and I belong to a great yahoo group with really supportive people who are going through treatment or who have little "graduates". http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Plagiocephaly/
To answer your questions:
Ava did not like hats at ALL but she took a nap in her helmet the very first day.
Ava's helmet is less than 7 ounces and she is right on track developmentally (she is almost 9 months old)
Her othotist said that she should wear the helmet for 23 out of 24 hours a day. He also said that kiddos usually have to wear the helmet from 3-6 months. Ava is making really nice progress and will probably wear it for a total of 4-5 months. I think the earlier you start the better. However, some kids don't get their helmet until after the age of 1 and they still make improvements.
I have attached a photo of Ava right after she got her helmet. I would love to show you all of our pictures (before and after) so you can see the progress she has made. I will e-mail them to you if you like.
This is hard for me to explain but I have to say that the experience (though not over) has been much less traumatic and life changing then I anticipated. I do feel that the process of making the decision to get the helmet was much more stressful than living with the helmet itself. Ava is happy...we are happy...and her head is looking much better.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions!
Amy and Ava

[LisaMom2Allie]

Hi Holly,
Allie is soundly sleeping in her little pink helmet right now. She has been in hers for 4 weeks and is showing amazing improvement. I am truely surprised at the difference that is has made in such a short amount of time. Allie had/has mild flattening on her back right side with slight ear shift and no facial assymetry or protrusions. We went for two consults one with Cranial Technologies for their DOC Band and one at WFUBMC in Winston Salem with a pediatric plastic surg. We ended up going w/ the WFUBMC helmet keeping in mind that if we did not see a change in 8 weeks we were going to go with the DOC band. The helmet has not slowed her down at all it is very light and it is working. I subscribe to the Palgio Boards but you really have to keep on top of the postings and most seem to be DOC or STAR not very many "plain" helmets. I just wrote a much more detailed reply and accidentally erased it. So to keep it shorter and not to bore everyone else with details feel free to email me @ [email protected] I would love to chat about it.


Lisa
Mom to Allie Nicole
3-10-03

[amyff]

Hi Lisa,
Looks like we have very similar stories. I just wanted to say that Ava also does not have a DOC or STARband. After reading the Yahoo board posts I felt very pressured to get either the DOC or the STAR. However, they are not available in our state or the surrounding states. Our Neurosurgeon had good experience with a local helmet. Ava wears a Tempe Fab helmet from Hanger. So we decided that if we did not see progress after 8 weeks that we would fly to CT in AZ. We are thrilled with the results thus far (I attached a photo of Ava's progress). Ava had severe flattening on the back right side with very mild facial assymetry (eyes and cheek) and no forehead protrusions. I am so happy that you are pleased with Allie's progress.

Continued luck!

Amy and Ava

[ocmama]

Our son had to wear the DOC Band for 4 months and he did great with the whole process. He had a flat spot on the right side of his head with ear misalignment and a bulge on his forehead. He was not the greatest sleeper before treatment, but the band did not bother him one bit. We are very glad we went ahead with treatment. Although his head is not perfect, (if he would have begun treatment earlier it would have..... insurance issues) it is so much better than it was. And was well worth it. For us it was far less tramatic than I thought it would be. He really did not notice it. Toward the end of treatment it was getting really hot where I live and it seemed to get to him sometimes, but we would just hang out inside most of the time. Hope this helps. Please feel free to email me if you'd like to chat more.

ocmama