Re: A great way to help your baby prior to a helmet

[Guest guest]

wow that sounds interesting, never heard of that! please post a pic if you can! glad it has helped, and would be great option for young babies.From: suzlevin <suzwholley@...>Subject: A great way to help your baby prior to a helmetPlagiocephaly Date: Saturday, January 30, 2010, 5:37 PM

I wanted to share my story with folks wondering what to do when your babies are too young for the helmet. I know that many doctors are telling parents to just wait and see, or to try positioning and tummy time. But, since babies sleep so much, it's so hard to really make a difference.

My daughter had torticollis, which led to plagiocephaly and bracycehphaly. At her one month appointment the doctor pointed out her issue and told us to work on repositioning and come back in two weeks to see if we were able to make any change. When we came back & it was worse, she had us set-up an appointment with a pediatric plastic surgeon and apply for therapy through Early Intervention.

When we met with the surgeon at her two month birthday, he shared that while she was too young for a helmet they could fit her for something called a "Moulding Cup" or I've also had them call it a "head cup".

The Moulding Cup was created by a Boston Childrens Hospital Pediatric plastic surgeon, Dr. , and is currently available in MA from NOPCO (www.bostonbrace. com). I know that Dr is looking to increase the product's availability over time, but for now it's at least in Boston.

I think I paid ~$150 out of pocket for it, but between it and physical therapy, her numbers have improved significantly - from over 9mm to 4 mm. In fact, on our follow-up visit to the specialist last week, he didn't recommend that go to the helmet since she is still sleeping in the cup and has improved so much.

I will have to take a picture of the bed to post, if folks are interested, since online I only find an old 2006 version in a newsletter, which is very different. But, basically it is a hard plastic "bed" with a dug out "cup" for the head to rest in, and it has 5-layers of foam padding that sits on top of the hard plastic to fit the head rest area to their head's size. As the baby grows, you remove layers. Babies from birth can lay in it up until they roll (~5-6 months).

I can't recommend this enough as an immediate way to begin to re-shape your child's head, and to ensure no additional pressure is placed on their favored side as they sleep.

Anyway, felt compelled to share! Good luck to all!

Suzanne