One ID twin with plagiocephaly, considering band, any advice?

[Nellstar]

My ID boys are 5 and a half months now and one has quite bad plagiocephaly (flat head on one side). It is pretty bad with his forehead bossing out. His twin brother has a perfectly rounded head and I am so worried we will put his brother at a disadvantage unless we get a band fitted. Does anyone have any experience/evidence that they work? It seems so cruel to put him in a band for 23 hours out of 24 but I would hate to disadvantage him for life instead of for 2 or 3 months. Their elder brother who is 2 and a half developed a flat head but late at 4 months and it predictably disappeared. My little one developed his at a few weeks old and it shows no sign of going despite exercises and lots of tummy time. It is apparently quite common in twins as their neck muscles can get shortened in utero by being squashed in a certain position. I would be so grateful for any advice.

[ellac]

I am in same situation, but both of my twins need helmets. It is disgusting that it is not available on the NHS because of 'cosmetic' reasons! is an eye squint and teeth braces not cosmetic then?!! took twins to loc in kingston upon thames. £1950, but they have knocked £50 each helmet!! thanks very much! like you said - you can't really put a price on your kids happiness later on in life. My twins are 9 months (corrected age 7 months)we are getting them fitted in 2 weeks time.

[kim111]

I have twin boys and both had flat heads, they were fine at birth but slowly their heads became more and more flat. They were born at 33 wks 5 days so think this may have been a factor. Anyway we did all the positioning etc that they recommend and it DID work for one boy! The other has/had torticollis though (where the muscles on one side of the neck are shortened) and despite doing the exercises we were given by the physio his head didn't improve - basically he had a corner to his head where his forehead protruded on one side (later measured at 21mm!).

To cut a long story short we got him a helmet (a Starband one from Ossur) and it absolutely worked - he still has it at the moment but it's coming off next Thursday. Last time he was measured his head was down to 5mm and it's expected to be down to 2-3mm by next week. I worried and worried about getting it and spent ages researching it as I was concerned it would restrict his head/brain growth but couldn't find anything negative and the studies I did find said that helmets/bands don't restrict head growth at all so in the end we did it. There were a few problems (eg rubbing in certain areas) which meant a few extra journeys to get his helmet adjusted but all in all I am so glad we did it. He doesn't seem to notice his helmet at all after the first 3 seconds and as I said it has really really improved his head shape.