Questions about experience with an older baby wearing a helmet

[Guest guest]

My daughter was diagnosed with deformational brachycephaly at 20 months. The

doctor prescribed a helmet saying it was possible to get results even that late,

if she would wear it for a longer period of time, i.e. 6 months. The orthotist,

however, was skeptical.

Are there any of you out there that have experience getting a helmet at such an

advanced age? Did you get a meaningful correction? How did you manage keeping

the helmet on the toddler's head for 23 hours a day? I've read that one of the

challenges is preventing the toddler from taking the helmet off herself. Any

ideas how to pitch the helmet to her so she would want to stick with it? She is

a strong-willed, active toddler, that would throw an occasional tantrum.

Thank you.

[Guest guest]

at 20 mo I would make sure you are working with someone who has experience with

older babies. Cranial Tech (maker of docband) seems to have the most experience

with older kids that I am aware of. However from what I understand they take

each child case by case to decide if they recommend banding, and sometimes they

decide not to based on the particular baby and age. I would try to do a

consultation with them as quickly as possible. I know they may not be located

conveniently depending where you live. If you can't go to CT at least try and

find an ortho that is not skeptical about pursuing treatment.

-christine

sydney, 4 yrs, starband grad

>

> My daughter was diagnosed with deformational brachycephaly at 20 months. The

doctor prescribed a helmet saying it was possible to get results even that late,

if she would wear it for a longer period of time, i.e. 6 months. The orthotist,

however, was skeptical.

> Are there any of you out there that have experience getting a helmet at such

an advanced age? Did you get a meaningful correction? How did you manage

keeping the helmet on the toddler's head for 23 hours a day? I've read that one

of the challenges is preventing the toddler from taking the helmet off herself.

Any ideas how to pitch the helmet to her so she would want to stick with it? She

is a strong-willed, active toddler, that would throw an occasional tantrum.

> Thank you.

>

[Guest guest]

My son has been wearing a Starband since he was 18 mos (15 adj). We were told he would have to wear it for at least 6 mos. He never had a problem with it, we were all amazed at how well he's done. He is still in the band, more than 6 mos now and got all the correction he could get with the little growth he had so far, 6.9 mm.So the band has been absolutely worth it for us. Even small correction is better than none and makes a big visual difference. His ortho was willing to work with us but would not have recommended it because his plagio was mild not so much because of the age. I would have tried CT but was too far for me. My son tried to take off the band a couple times. After that the ortho added some more velcro to the strap in a way that made it impossible for him to do it. I can't really explain what she did but if you are interested I'll post pictures. Also the ortho said to not just take off the band when/if he would suddenly throw a fit or scream about it. She said to first calm him down, wait a little and then take the band off and check if there was any problem. That happened for us a few times at the very beginning. It didn't take him long to get used to it. There are also alternative treatments you can try together or instead of the band like Chiro, Osteopathy or CST. For that you can find more info in the olderplagio group.Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. , Tampa, FL, 24 mos, mild plagio, starband since 14 July 09

Plagiocephaly From: virenaus@...Date: Tue, 9 Feb 2010 04:06:49 +0000Subject: Questions about experience with an older baby wearing a helmet

My daughter was diagnosed with deformational brachycephaly at 20 months. The doctor prescribed a helmet saying it was possible to get results even that late, if she would wear it for a longer period of time, i.e. 6 months. The orthotist, however, was skeptical. Are there any of you out there that have experience getting a helmet at such an advanced age? Did you get a meaningful correction? How did you manage keeping the helmet on the toddler's head for 23 hours a day? I've read that one of the challenges is preventing the toddler from taking the helmet off herself. Any ideas how to pitch the helmet to her so she would want to stick with it? She is a strong-willed, active toddler, that would throw an occasional tantrum.Thank you.

[Guest guest]

Thank you all for responding. It gives me hope to hear there are other older

babies going through this. We are nowhere near a DOCband or a STARband

location, and the only option I have seems to be Hanger. I understand that they

are not as popular, but there is a concurrent thread here discussing Hanger, and

it seems they get the job done. The orthotist and other staff in the office we

went to have been very nice and saw us twice to discuss the potential of getting

a treatment (once even without an appointment). I described the orthotist as

" skeptical " because in his opinion, my daughter is " absolutely beautiful " (she

doesn't have facial assymetry), and the flatness will be covered by hair, since

she is a girl. That, however, is not enough for me. Her cephalic index is 97%.

He also said that the same cephalic index could look differently on different

babies. I feel that even a slight improvement (he mentioned 3 mm) would be

meaningful. At any rate, the orthotist is still willing to work with us, even

though the oldest baby he had treated was 14 months old.

We have submitted the necessary documents for pre-certification to our insurance

provider (Aetna). At this point, however, time is crucial. Not only we have to

wait for pre-approval, we will have to wait for the helmet itself. As far as I

can see, another month can go by before we start anything. I wonder if I should

go ahead and just pay for the helmet out of pocket. Do any of you know if Aetna

would reimburse after treatment was initiated?

I keeping seeing the term 'adjusted age' in posts, and am clueless as to what

that means. Anyone care to explain?

Thank you.

>

> My daughter was diagnosed with deformational brachycephaly at 20 months. The

doctor prescribed a helmet saying it was possible to get results even that late,

if she would wear it for a longer period of time, i.e. 6 months. The orthotist,

however, was skeptical.

> Are there any of you out there that have experience getting a helmet at such

an advanced age? Did you get a meaningful correction? How did you manage

keeping the helmet on the toddler's head for 23 hours a day? I've read that one

of the challenges is preventing the toddler from taking the helmet off herself.

Any ideas how to pitch the helmet to her so she would want to stick with it? She

is a strong-willed, active toddler, that would throw an occasional tantrum.

> Thank you.

>

[Guest guest]

I would definitely go ahead with banding as soon as possible. My daughter was

quite young but started with about the same numbers. She got very good

correction, but i can still see some remaining shape issues with her head (not

obvious to others). I would want to know i did all that I could to correct the

situation. Even small correction will help.

I know some parents see correction post-banding as the baby grows older. I

haven't really noticed any improvement since my daughter graduated. You just

don't know if your child will improve on her own or not. It sounds like your

otho is being reasonable. Just try to make sure you get a good fit on the band

and he quickly follows up with any problems. Then hope you get some good growth

in the next few months.

-christine

sydney, 4 yrs, starband grad

> >

> > My daughter was diagnosed with deformational brachycephaly at 20 months. The

doctor prescribed a helmet saying it was possible to get results even that late,

if she would wear it for a longer period of time, i.e. 6 months. The orthotist,

however, was skeptical.

> > Are there any of you out there that have experience getting a helmet at such

an advanced age? Did you get a meaningful correction? How did you manage

keeping the helmet on the toddler's head for 23 hours a day? I've read that one

of the challenges is preventing the toddler from taking the helmet off herself.

Any ideas how to pitch the helmet to her so she would want to stick with it? She

is a strong-willed, active toddler, that would throw an occasional tantrum.

> > Thank you.

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Adjusted age is used for preemies...if a baby is 6 months old but was born 2

months premature, their adjusted age is 4 months old and that is used when

considering milestones and growth.

My son wore his first DOCBand for plagio beginning at 17 months and got his

second DOCBand at 21 months and we got about the same amount of correction out

of each band. Considering his age, we got great results but I still notice the

remaining assymetries. I don't think I've heard of too many brachy babies

starting the banding process that late, so I'm not sure of the results, but I

would definitely go ahead and get the ball rolling with the Hanger ortho. And

definitely do keep us posted because again, it would be nice to know how it

works in treating brachy at a late age.

Good luck!

Jake-3 (DOCBand Grad 9/08)

> >

> > My daughter was diagnosed with deformational brachycephaly at 20 months. The

doctor prescribed a helmet saying it was possible to get results even that late,

if she would wear it for a longer period of time, i.e. 6 months. The orthotist,

however, was skeptical.

> > Are there any of you out there that have experience getting a helmet at such

an advanced age? Did you get a meaningful correction? How did you manage

keeping the helmet on the toddler's head for 23 hours a day? I've read that one

of the challenges is preventing the toddler from taking the helmet off herself.

Any ideas how to pitch the helmet to her so she would want to stick with it? She

is a strong-willed, active toddler, that would throw an occasional tantrum.

> > Thank you.

> >

>