which? helmet vs band

[Guest guest]

Hello there,

Thank you so much for responding to my first postings. I have been

so awestruck all week from reading all the postings, past and

present. It is almost miraculous to me that we women can collect

ourselves into such a compassionate, caring, strong & intelligent

group. I fwd some of the postings to my husband and he too was

amazed and overwhelmed. " Why don't men do this? " he asked.

Anyways...if you could offer some more answers:

We are going for our first visit to see a neurologist in a week.

I'm leaning strongly towards getting a helmet/band for my baby. I

live in Toronto and from what I understand, they only have helmets

at the Hospital for Sick Children. My baby was born with a full

head of thick, luscious hair (just like daddy)and I'm wondering

whether odour will be a worse problem in a helmet as opposed to a

band. He is also a very active 7 month old boy who tends to sweat

and get food everywhere. A lot of your postings say smell is a

common problem already. Is it worth it for me to travel out of

province to get a band? Does a band cut down smell? What exactly

is the difference anyway? Do they accomplish the same thing? Or is

a helmet for more serious cases?

(mom to Kale)

[Guest guest]

Hi :

My daughter didn't wear a helmet, she wore bands, but almost all

bands and helmet stink! Maybe the bands cut down on odor some seems

that they are open on top, but the still definitely get that great

stinky smell!! There's really not much you can do to prevent it .

It's not horribly bad by any means and you get used to it. There are

ways to help " clean " the band or to mask the odors. Cleaning it

w/rubbing alcohol, washing the baby's hair with great smelling

shampoo, letting the band dry in direct sunlight, etc....but we'd

tell you what to do IF you decide to get Kale a helmet or band.

As for the differences of helmets & bands. I'm not sure exactly what

type of product they use at Toronto Sick Kids, but most locally made

helmets are considered " passive " . This means the helmet simply has

a gap in the helmet where the flat area of the child's head is. This

allows room for the flat area of the head to grow into. Passive

helmets simply rely on growth spurts. As the child's head grows, it

will fill into the helmet over time. Passive style bands work best

in the younger babies as they are rapidly growing.

" Active " or " Agressive " bands (like the DOCband & STARband) are the

open top style bands. These bands apply minimal pressureS (not felt

by the child) to the non flat side of the child's head which helps

push the flat side out as well as stunting the growth of the non flat

side allowing the flatter side to catch up. These bands also work

best during growth spurts, but being they add a little pressure, they

tend to work a bit faster than passive designed helmets. Kale is 7

mos so he still has lots of growing to come. I would imagine he'd

still see improvement with a passive helmet .

I hope this info helps.

Please let us know how your appt with the neuro goes next week & good

luck. You might want to look at www.plagiocephaly.org/support then

click " questions for the dr " to see a good list of questions to ask

at your appt..

Debbie Abby's mom DOCGrad

MI

> Hello there,

>

> Thank you so much for responding to my first postings. I have been

> so awestruck all week from reading all the postings, past and

> present. It is almost miraculous to me that we women can collect

> ourselves into such a compassionate, caring, strong & intelligent

> group. I fwd some of the postings to my husband and he too was

> amazed and overwhelmed. " Why don't men do this? " he asked.

>

> Anyways...if you could offer some more answers:

>

> We are going for our first visit to see a neurologist in a week.

> I'm leaning strongly towards getting a helmet/band for my baby. I

> live in Toronto and from what I understand, they only have helmets

> at the Hospital for Sick Children. My baby was born with a full

> head of thick, luscious hair (just like daddy)and I'm wondering

> whether odour will be a worse problem in a helmet as opposed to a

> band. He is also a very active 7 month old boy who tends to sweat

> and get food everywhere. A lot of your postings say smell is a

> common problem already. Is it worth it for me to travel out of

> province to get a band? Does a band cut down smell? What exactly

> is the difference anyway? Do they accomplish the same thing? Or

is

> a helmet for more serious cases?

>

> (mom to Kale)

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I just read Debbie's post to you to see if she had talked about passive and

dynamic which she did. I think she described the differences very well and I

would just add my second to that! My daughter wore the passive type of

locally made helmet. She started at 9 months and I often wonder if we would

have gotten even more correction with a dynamic band. Dont' get me wrong - we

did get some really good correction with the helmet, but.....I still wonder.

So I guess I am saying I agree with Debbie - passive is probably better for

younger babies, but I think they could still work on older babies. With your

Kale being 7 months I think you would have good luck either way.

As far as the stink goes, I think you are going to get that with whichever

device you get! 's helmet never really got so stinky that we couldn't

get it clean with 91% rubbing alchohal and then L'Oreal Kids Shampoo on her

head.

Best of luck as you begin your decision making process. I hope you will call

on us whenever you need some advice or support. Please keep us posted!

Marci (Mom to )

Oklahoma

PS there is a helmet/band comparison link at www.plagiocephaly.org/support