I'm taking my son on Tuesday to have his flat head examined. I'm not a professional, but given the degree of flatness, I can't imagine he won't need a helmet. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to fix this problem. I have a few questions I want to ask, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. Here is what I have, let me know if there is anything else I can ask and if you child had been in a helmet, how long was adjustment period.
Can it flatten again after helmet is removed?
There experience with adjustment period at home?
What type of repositioning can we do to help?
How is it effected by Heat, can we put powder or something under to help with sweating?
How aggressive should we be in treating now?
I've done the same thing with his twin brother and his twin doesn't have a flat head, is there a reason? This is more out of curiosity, but still wondering why it happened to one and not the other.
He sleeps through the night, will this affect it and if so do you know how long it usually last?
I'm sure there are tons of questions, and I'm still researching, but this is what I have so far. He is only 4 months and this is prime time to get it corrected, so I'm going to do what I can.
Thanks for the help.
Thanks for all the advice. I'm definitely not rushing out to get him a helmet, but if he needs it, I'm not against it. This is not a flat spot on his head, his whole back of his head is completely flat and it has altered his head shape. Also, girls are a little different when it comes to flat heads because they usually have hair to cover so it's not as noticible. Physical Therapy was mentioned during our phone call and will be explored at his appointment. If we can get it done without the helmet, I would prefer it, but I don't want an ongoing saga for years if I can fix it in a few months. When he is awake, 90% of the time he is in his Bumbo, on his belly, or in his excersaucer so he is not even on his head. But when he sleeps he does not move his head at all. He lays completely flat. I've tried moving his head to the side and he puts it right back in the middle.
I am curious if he has an torticollis to go with the flat head. Also, is he in Physical Therapy? There are a lot of muscles that go with a flat head that need some work. 4 months may be young enough that you might not need a helmet, but I would go with the docs on this one. I know that if the face gets misshapen then they will look "off" for the rest of their life, and it can affect balance and coordination.
I am just going to give you my experience.
They told us my son needed a helmet.
He did have a flattened portion of his head.
The more I looked into it, read up on it, saw pictures of the helmet, saw pictures of kids wearing them...........we opted not to do it.
He's now 3 1/2 and he is just fine. You can no longer tell where the flat spot was. I didn't want my son to have to wear that thing for 23 1/2 hrs each day for months.
I had to adjust his head a lot when he slept to make him more comfortable. I held him a lot more. I bought this wedge thing from Babies R Us so he could sleep on his side.
Just wanted to offer you the alternative from my experience.
Good luck in whatever choice you make! Best wishes!
Am I glad I did not do it? Yes! I cannot speak FOR you but just wanted to give you my perspective & experience.
While my kids never had this problem I have a friend who's daughter did and the pediatrician suggested a helmet. After she did more research, she decided against it. Her daughter is about 3 yrs old now and her head looks perfectly normal. So I guess I would suggest do your homework, talk to your pedi, and make the most informed decision.
On another note, while out and about recently I saw a little boy that was wearing one of those helmets and it was painted with some kind of flat black paint and with skulls and rock & roll type decorations...I am making it sound cheesy, but it was actually really cute! :)
I have no experience with this but saw your posting and just wanted to give you a cyber mama hug.
Your questions sound great, My experience with pediatric specialist is that they really try to do all they can to reassure you and answer quesitons you might not have thought of yet.
maybe ask if there is anything to do to soothe him as he gets used to it???
What about grow spurts and refitting it??
Big hugs, I'm sure they will get it taken care of and he will handle it better than you expect
I don't have additional questions for you, but wanted to give you a bit of info based on a friend's experience. Her daughter got her helmet off yesterday, so it was an exciting day!
They took the helmet off for an hour each day. During that time, they bathed the baby and let her hair dry. They also washed the helmet and let it dry each day. It really helped to keep it from smelling bad.
It did not affect her sleep. They were really worried about it, but she adjusted very quickly. She was a good sleeper before and slept just as well with the helmet on.
I don't know if it can reflatten. Do as much as you can with the first helmet though. She said many times, the head will improve significantly with the helmet, but they will outgrow the helmet before their head is completely rounded out (or as well as can be), so many babies require a second, bigger helmet. However, she said insurance rarely covers the second helmet. So get as much as you can out of helmet #1.
I really wish we'd gotten a helmet for my son. At the time, I was stupid and vain and didn't want to admit he needed it. He's 5 now and, when his hair is wet, you can definitely tell that it's kind of flat.
My baby had a helmet and she had zero issues wearing it. From the day we plopped it on her head at the office and drove home, she never bat an eyelash at it. She even slept just like normal that night with it on. However, their heads do tend to sweat more so the office that did ours had us work up to wearing the helmet all day/night to get their body used to it. After a week or so, her body stopped sweating so much in the helmet. The only time I was allowed to take it off was to bathe her and to clean the helmet. She actually began crawling back to her helmet after her bath and she'd hand it to me:) I'm really glad I did a helmet on my child, when they did the 4D imaging of her head and made an exact replica of her head to refer back to, you could really see how mis-shapen her head was. They seem like such a bigger deal when you look at the child wearing the helmet, but in reality, it doesn't interfere with them playing or sleeping, walking, watching TV etc... Babies get used to the helmet literally overnight. Don't stress, it's not as big of deal as it seems:)
