AIBU to get a helmet fitted for my six month old

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My beautiful baby boy has positional plagiocephaly. He is six months old. He is just coming to the end of the "perfect" age to get a helmet fitted. His flat spot has been assessed and it is Severe 1. So bad but not horrific.

Treatment is for six months roughly and he will need to wear a helmet for 22/23 hours a day for that period of time. It is a lot of work and a lot of money (£2.5k) but I have the finances to do this for him and the time to dedicate to it. He only has until he is 16 months to have it treated. It will not go away on it's own it will just be less noticeable with his hair and as his head gets bigger. His face shouldn't get any more deformed. It is marginally deformed now but without looking for it you probably wouldn't notice it.

As the back to sleep campaign is only from the 1990s it is hard to find adults with positional plagiocephaly but research seems to suggest whilst there is no brain growth issues there could be developmental issues. This concerns me as I worry he is a late developer anyway. I also worry about the mental aspect of looking different. I was bullied in school, I wouldn't say I am attractive and I would hate my little boy to be on the receiving end of this. Children and adults can be very cruel. Whilst I will get looks and questions about his helmet for six months I would hope my family will understand and most of my friends most likely will. Also during a pandemic who is he likely to see anyway there are no groups etc to go to so no one (strangers I mean) to question me.

So AIBU to get one? Would you/have you done the same. Or have you left it and regret it. To me the money and the timeframe is nothing to a lifetime of people being arseholes towards him.

Have you had an opinion from a medical professional who is not trying to sell you a £2.5k helmet?

It is difficult because I don't know where to go. The NHS (GP) and HV stance is "tummy time will fix it". It hasn't. If it did he wouldn't have it. Apart from sleeping he is never on his back. I've done the exercises, the carrying techniques etc. It hasn't helped. I feel this is my fault too as I didn't notice it soon enough and when I did the HV just said tummy time. If I could stay up all night so he could sleep off his head I would do. I want what is best for him. In this pandemic it is difficult to access non-emergency help for things and so I have nowhere else to go about it.

Yes, agree with the above. What does the nhs say and why won’t they provide a helmet for him?

FWIW, while the Back to Sleep campaign is only relatively recent, for generations before that babies weren’t put on their fronts anyway, so there must have been plenty of flat heads. Front sleeping was a newish thing forty or fifty years ago, according to my mum.

Also - can’t he roll yet? If he can, he doesn’t need to be on his back to sleep now, does he? Or at least that’s what I was told five years ago...

How long would he have to wear it for (as in how many months etc) typically? You say you worry about friendships, but very young children don't tend to form strong friendships anyway, so depending on how long he has to wear it for, that may not even be an issue.

I know someone whose twins wore them and it seems to have worked out well for them. I don't recall them wearing them for more than a year and no one would even know now, several years down the line.

You probably would get questions, but providing you are happy to talk about it if people ask, I don't see why that would be a problem either.

My ds was the same. Do the exercises for torticollis religiously. You need to be doing them 10 times a day at least. Get a sleepyhead so he's not sleeping on a hard surface - I'd say a mimos pillow but I found once they roll it's useless.

And if you want get the helmet. They get good reviews and the NHS will never suggest it because they see flat head as a cosmetic thing only and not requiring funding. My private paedeatric physio said she would recommend them privately but not in her NHS role.

I wouldn’t. The money wouldn’t worry me in that I’d be happy to spend whatever to fix a real problem but the distress that it’s likely to cause would. It seems like a lot of discomfort to put him through to fix a cosmetic problem.

If I thought it would help him yes I would get it.
I wouldn't give a flying f about the questions coming my way because people can be so rude and it's none of their business. He's only 6 months so don't worry about delays yet

Sorry I meant if left untreated and it is noticeable he may struggle with bullies when he is older at school etc. He has no friends now obviously. I have friends with babies but he doesn't know them as he has no meaningful contact with them.

Six months is what has been estimated. I'd like to think off in time for the new year. Which is a little under six months.

Yes it is cosmetic but also could cause issues for things such as cycle helmets etc. His head is quite severely flat on one side.

Oh and he can roll but is a lazy baby and doesn't do it much

If you haven't you do need to see a paedeatric physio (not an osteopath or chiro!) Because the flat head could be caused by torticollis which can cause spine issues if they over correct it to compensate. So sorting the flat head with the helmet is one issue but the root cause of it also needs to be sorted and that is usually torticollis

@Bellesavage did your son have one?

I've looked on the NHS page. It looks like they do work but they just don't have enough clinical evidence to justify the expense on the NHS. Only you know how severe the flatness is, but if I were you and I was worried, I think I'd risk a bit of a rash, absorb the expense and get this thing sorted now because your only chance is now. Honestly the NHS is all a (reasonable) cost benefit analysis. But your individual cost benefit analysis isn't theirs.

Have you spoken to a cranial osteopath?
I usually find osteopaths to be helpful and honest with their opinion.
I believe many specialise in treating children.
My dd needed podiatry consultations for 8 years and the osteopath helped us with exercises and treatment.

@Bellesavage yes I've tried to get him treatment for that. All the local osteos are shut. But why not an osteo? What's the difference... Sorry to sound stupid.

As the back to sleep campaign is only from the 1990s it is hard to find adults with positional plagiocephaly what has happened to all the adults born in the 90s? I see it a lot in adults, hair definitely helps.

My son didn't, but he was crawling at 5 months so was up off his head and we were doing the physio religiously so it's sorted itself and he's left with very very slight flattening which only I can see when he's in the bath. My family males go bald early so I wanted him to have a good head shape and I'm happy with it now. His range of movement is also better.

Cranio osteophathy is woo. People say it works for them but the evidence suggests its no better than a placebo. A physio will actually work with the muscles involved rather than waving a hand over them and assuming the magic energy forces will help with 'realignment'.

As you can afford it, I think there are only two issues. 1. Will you regret it if you don't do it? 2. Will you stop if your baby doesn't tolerate it or it appears to cause them too much discomfort?

My son has quite a large flat area on the back of his head, much of which was caused by grinding due to severe reflux, which is much better now he's almost 2. He also seems to have permanently damaged the hair follicles in that area - the regrowth after being rubbed bare is rougher and courser than elsewhere. We haven't seen discussion of that anywhere, so we're hoping that improves over time. His hair does help conceal the flatness, but my DH is worried that the 'different' hair will itself be a cause for bullying. We had more non-cosmetic, medical issues to worry about when he was younger, so didn't do anything about his flat section beyond exercises and sleeping positions (which were also of some limited help with his reflux). If the appearance of his head had been the only issue, we might well have done what you're considering.

My ds had a flat bit on the back of his head. It went away.

Relatives of mine had this with their DS - his head was seriously misshapen but they flatly refused to acknowledge it despite both being NHS consultants and wouldn't even entertain the idea of looking at helmets or any other options. His head shape didn't improve and by the time he was 18 months old it looked 'offset' - if you looked at him you could see one side of his face looked 'pushed forward' while the other side was flatter/further back. He's now a teenager and if he wears his hair longer it's a bit less noticeable (although that may just be because we're used to what he looks like)... but I've seen people do a bit of a double-take when they look at him which is quite sad.

It's definitely worth getting decent medical advice on the options available (including if it will correct itself without intervention) - this is the time to act if anything needs to be done to resolve it. Good luck

We had one for our daughter 9yrs ago. Worked beautifully and because we started early she didn’t wear if for more than 6 months. Was tough getting used to it at first but when we did became part of our life and was very easy. Lots of people out and about would stop to say they’d don’t the same and to give support which always moved me. My daughter now has a normal shaped head :)

My ds has a very flat head on the side from when he was in nicu for 2 months.

There is no evidence the helmets work. That's why the nhs don't fund them.

We bought a memory foam pillow with a little whole in it so baby keeps his head in the right place. Then just kept him of his head as much as possible.

I did think that it was never going to round out. But it does. As the brain grows the head rounds out. There is only an issue if the skull fuses before it rounds out - but this doesn't normally happen until 2 I don't think.

Honestly hid head is round now and we had no helmet. Just give it time. It's not going to pop out over night. My ds was 2 before his rounded out - which is longer than normal due to a brain growth issue.

Do what you think is best. But you may find the helmet is a lot of faff and money and doesn't actually do anything that wouldn't have happened on its own. Think how you would like a helmet on in summer. Research from places other than the helmet companies. My dh really wanted to get one but after looking into non bias sources and speaking to medical friends we decided its not worth it.

@Springiscoming20 thank you. That means a lot. Six months of helmet as a baby is nothing imo. I think I'm going to push on for it. I want him not to have issues in the future. Did your daughter mind wearing it?

@GruffaIo 100% if it was detrimental to him and caused him severe issues I would stop. I'm not up for causing him unnecessary stress.

The two children that I know who had this, both had helmets paid for privately. I never heard either set of parents say that they wish they hadn't spent the money.

P.S. It was not a big deal to wear it for either child....One was in the USA and the helmet was decorated with dad's favorite American football team.