Re: How should we monitor baby's progress in the band?

[Guest guest]

We use a STARBand, but they are all pretty much the same. We look for red skin

in the areas where we want growth restricted...my son has plagio on his right

side, so when I see red on his right forehead and his left back side, then I

know it is working as designed. (This is just pressure red, not angry rash

red.) Also, I highly recommend taking pictures! Get the hair wet and take

pictures from the top down or lay your child flat and take a picture of the top

of the head to get the overall shape. That worked best for us to compare

pictures from earlier to where our son is now.

The helmet should not be too tight where it is causing marks on the skin. Our

son's helmet shifts around a little bit during the day, but not so much as to

cause discomfort, etc.

If you see red marks that don't go away or it is shifting over the ears and

causing pain or shifting down into the eyes, then time for an adjustment.

Otherwise, just follow the schedule that you were given for going back in.

Also, try to keep your child in the band for 23 hours a day...the more they wear

it, the faster the progress will appear.

Good luck!

>>

> What should we look out for, other than obvious red marks and so on, to show

that the fit needs adjusting?

>

> For that matter, what makes a good " fit " ? Should it be snug? I understand it

should have room for the flat spot to grow out, but what about the rest of the

band?

>

> Any insight would be great!

>

[Guest guest]

We live about 2 hours away from the CT clinic so I understand the desire to be

cautious. I will tell you though that it is worth the extra trip to be reassured

that the helmet is doing it's job correctly.

The bands are made to be snug on the high spots but I always felt like the band

was very " loose " and it really wasn't. Our hardest thing has been making sure

the daycare providers don't interpret how loose it feels as bad and cinch down

on the helmet strap. It's happened twice in 10 weeks and no problems really

resulted except that my daughter was cranky when I picked her up and she had to

spend the night out of the helmet waiting for the red pressure marks to fade

(and yes they took that long to fade which resulted in very angry calls to the

daycare director about how much I pay them to follow directions and how much

this helmet cost and every second counts, etc...). Also one area of my daughters

head shows purplish bruise like marks instead of red marks but they fade in the

correct amount of time so she is just weird like that but it really freaked me

out when I first saw those purplish marks. The purple only seems to show in the

few days before we go in to be re-fitted so it must have something to do with

her growing but the therapist wasn't worried because it does fade.

Our Cranial Tech office let us borrow the 3D mold of my daughter's head so that

I could take the time to really study what her head was in the beginning to what

it currently looks like. Our therapist at CT said that lots of parents take the

molding home to check things out on their own. It's really neat that I can put

the helmet on the molding and see all the space that has filled in. If you don't

want to risk the 3D mold you can do your own pictures similar to the ones CT

takes at the beginning and visually watch her change over the weeks

If you ever doubt how your child's head is growing, Cranial Tech will usually

offer to do another photo evaluation for you, just be sure you call ahead so

that they can schedule you for photos and to see your therapist. Also, I had a

fit when they tried to pay musical therapist with us and now we see the same

therapist every week which is helpful because they will be able to read and

interpret their own notes and be able to watch for any problems that can appear

from week to week whereas a different therapist may assume that problem spot was

there the week before and just wasn't charted because it's always been there.

Hope this helps and good luck!

>

> I hope other experienced moms and dads here can give some advice! Since we

are so far away from CT where we will hopefully be getting the band, I feel like

we have to be extra vigilant to make sure we don't run into any problems.

>

> Mainly I am worried with how to know if the band is fitting right, whether it

is doing what it is supposed to be doing, whether (God forbid) the band is

causing my son's head to grow in an undesirable direction. I do not want the

band to cause more problems than it is supposed to solve!

>

> What should we look out for, other than obvious red marks and so on, to show

that the fit needs adjusting?

>

> For that matter, what makes a good " fit " ? Should it be snug? I understand it

should have room for the flat spot to grow out, but what about the rest of the

band?

>

> Any insight would be great!

>

[Guest guest]

Tell anyone else dealing with the baby (daycare providers, nanny, relatives) that it may seem counter intuitive but it is supposed to be pretty loose. That way they will not pull the velcro tight. Our baby was able to move his helmet all the time when he was messing with his ears and he would sometimes pull it down over his eyebrows. But it worked and the therapist said it is supposed to have space in it or else there will be no room for the flat spot to grow into. In the beginning, we had a spot on the back of his head rubbing that actually bled and since that point we had been very careful to make sure we and the nanny didn't tighten it too much. We were able to tell the exact tightness by the two silver buttons on the velcro strap. Basically, those needed to be showing when you fastened the velcro strap. I don't know how the CT therapist has it adjusted for your child's helmet but I would try to use some reference point like that on the helmet to know how far to pull the strap. I guess you could even mark the helmet with permanent marker to show where the strap should never be pulled past.

Other than that, the therapist would tell us every fitting if there was growth or not. They would tell us how many millimeters his head had grown in general too and if he had not grown, they would tell us that as well. I don't know how much parents can do to monitor since the changes aren't really visible to the naked eye from week to week. Our baby did have a bald spot on the back of his head and we did see that shifting more to the left side so that was an indication for us that something was happening. But aside from monitoring his skin to make sure it's not irritated, I don't think there is much a parent can discern about the changes in the skull until at least halfway through when the therapist might point out some visible changes.

[Guest guest]

It should fit with only a little movement. I've heard less than 1/2 " , but I

don't know if that is official. Obviously you need to watch for red spots. But

also I would suggest taking your own photos every week or two to track changes

in shape. Most of us can't remember the shape accurately from week to week. That

way you'll see the improvement. I found taking the photos in the bath looking

down at the top helped me see changes the best.

-christine

sydney, 4.5 yrs, starband grad

>

> I hope other experienced moms and dads here can give some advice! Since we

are so far away from CT where we will hopefully be getting the band, I feel like

we have to be extra vigilant to make sure we don't run into any problems.

>

> Mainly I am worried with how to know if the band is fitting right, whether it

is doing what it is supposed to be doing, whether (God forbid) the band is

causing my son's head to grow in an undesirable direction. I do not want the

band to cause more problems than it is supposed to solve!

>

> What should we look out for, other than obvious red marks and so on, to show

that the fit needs adjusting?

>

> For that matter, what makes a good " fit " ? Should it be snug? I understand it

should have room for the flat spot to grow out, but what about the rest of the

band?

>

> Any insight would be great!

>

[Guest guest]

If you mean CT as in Cranial Technologies, then be aware that they are not the same as Starband. We didn't use a Starband, we used DocBand so I can't give advice on how the fit will be on a Starband. But I do know that the DocBand we had had more movement than we expected and that was how it was supposed to work. For the first month I had asked if it was too loose and she kept saying that there needs to be room. She did adjust it for settling down over his eyebrows but said that what we thought was looseness (the baby being able to move the helmet up and down slightly) was fine. The Docband is known to be lighter, less restrictive (less helmet material on the head), and not as hot as the Starband in the summer. So the fit might be slightly different. On the other hand, I have read reviews from people who used Starbands and Hangers before who say that the DocBand fits more snugly. So, really, it is hard to get an objective opinion on it from people on the internet since what might be loose to me may be considered snug to another. I'd just hope you can trust the therapists at the CT clinic. Maybe if you google reviews of the specific CT clinic you could get some insight on whether or not they do a good job so you won't have to worry about monitoring anything at home but the skin and heat regulation.