Re: Agonizing over whether to get the helmet

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

my daughter was diagnosed with brachy at 4 mo old, and in a starband at age 5

mo. Her head had very little asymmetry (4.5 mm) but her cephalic index was

initially measured by our specialist with calipers at 100% (equally wide and

long). The starscanner put her slightly lower - about 96% I think. She wore her

band for 5 mo to age 10 mo, and improved to about 85%. I had her checked again

14 mo, and although her head had grown, the shape hadn't improved. Without the

band the growth was evenly distributed, so both width and length increase. She

is now almost 5 yrs old, and I think her head shape is similar to the shape it

was at graduating from her starband. This is a case study of 1 :-) but based on

my experience I would say heads do not round out on their own. Of course some

might, but if you wait and see you may have a child like mine who does not.

You can see her head shape and changes in the photos section under Our Plagio

Babies S/ Sydney M. Here is a link:

Plagiocephaly/photos/album/1577428621/pic/10538202\

51/view?picmode=original & mode=tn & order=ordinal & start=41 & dir=asc

-

sydney 4.5 yrs, starband grad

>

> Hi everyone,

>

> So I'm really wondering whether to get a helmet for my son. I'm really

wondering if his head will round out on it's own. He is symmetrical, but is very

flat in the back...3 standard deviations from the mean. I wish there were

studies that compared groups who got the helmet to kids who didn't get the

helmet to see how much of a difference there is. But I don't know of any such

studies. And I just spoke to my son's pediatrician about our insurance denial

who says we would be better off to put the money in a college fund, thinking it

will get better on it's own, or that hair will cover it. Well, my husband's

hair is about 1/4 inch long, so that wouldnt' hide much if our son wears his

hair that short. But then again, maybe it will correct. It's making me wonder

what we should do.

>

> My son just turned 4 months old, and part of me wants to wait to see if things

get better, but then I know it's harder to correct and they have to wear the

helmet for longer when they start older. I just wish I had a crystal ball to

see what his head would look like without the helmet.

>

> Are there any parents on here whose child had a similarly flat head who waited

to see if things improved and either saw their child's head round out, or saw it

didn't and got the helmet later?

>

> Thanks,

>

>

[Guest guest]

We repositioned our son until he was 7 months old. Then we saw a pediatric

neurologist, who said quite clearly to me, that it would not round out on its

own. She said if I was happy with the shape of his head being exactly like it

was that day for the rest of his life, then no need for a helmet. Well, his

plagio was borderline severe, so no, I wasn't happy. Her response was that the

band was the only way to correct it, it would NOT round out on its own. I took

this more seriously than my pediatrician, who is great, but doesn't deal with

the skull like a neurologist does. Also, our neurologist is very highly

recommended and she doesn't make a dime off the band, so there was no conflict

of interest there.

I will also add though, that my daughter also had plagio and her head did

respond to repositioning, but we gave it until 6 months. With my son, we said

that we would give it to 6 or 7 months to see how it would round out with the

repositioning...no go. (My son also has torticollis, which made his plagio

worse).

My son has been in his band for 3.5 months now and has seen great improvement,

so don't feel like you have to rush quite so much. Also, I felt better about

banding my son after he was able to sit up and roll over well.

Good luck!

> My son just turned 4 months old, and part of me wants to wait to see if things

get better, but then I know it's harder to correct and they have to wear the

helmet for longer when they start older. I just wish I had a crystal ball to

see what his head would look like without the helmet.

>

> Are there any parents on here whose child had a similarly flat head who waited

to see if things improved and either saw their child's head round out, or saw it

didn't and got the helmet later?

>

> Thanks,

>

>

[Guest guest]

I wish these pediatricians would stop telling all parents that the head will round out on it's own. For my appeal letter to insurance I found several articles where researchers and doctors say it will not necessarily round out on its own. I understand that repositioning helps sometimes but pediatricians need to treat each patient on a case by case basis, considering severity, prior repositioning efforts, and age of the baby. If you have gone 5 months and repositioning has not worked, how in the world would a misshapen skull, which is getting more solid every day, all of a sudden pop back into shape? That doesn't even make sense.