Has anyone regretted putting their baby in a helmet for plagiocephaly?

[Pp3000]

Hi!

I have an appointment at ahead4babies this week to see about a helmet for my 6 month old.

She has a flat head at the back right hand side, misaligned ears and one side of her forehead bulges when looking from above.

Has anyone regretted putting heir baby in a helmet? They seem barbaric but I don't want my baby to have a wonky face the rest of her life

Also, how long did it take for your baby's head to be corrected? And how many appointments did you have to attend??

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Anyone?

My ds had undiagnosed torticollis which caused plagiocephaly with misaligned ears, a bulging eye/forehead. It was obvious by 8 weeks and we acted to resolve the issue. He had physio for his twisted neck, and we were relentless in preventing pressure on his head, carried him in the sling, propped his head over on the other side at night with a rolled up muslin. In the car seat we put a rolled up muslin to turn his head to the other side. Lots of tummy time, we saw a cranio facial surgeon privately to enquire regarding helmets, his opinion was we were doing the job of the helmet by stopping the pressure on the flattened area. He did not recommend them. My ds had a perfect head now, his eye/forehead resolved very quickly.

Does your dd have torticollis? Or just prefer one side? It would be hard to reposition a 6 month old as aggressively as we repositioned our 8 week old

The surgeon we saw was Simon Eccles in great portland Street. He was very reassuring

Thanks for your replies! She just preferred one side - no restrictions on movements. She's started sleeping on her side/ tummy and I thought her head would improve but so far nothing. I know the window for helmet success is small so that's why I want to act quickly!!

We were told the helmet needed to be started before 12m, but the surgeon said as we'd removed the cause, the torticollis and the pressure on that side then it would naturally even out. A helmet won't 'mould' her head, it just removes the pressure from that area and allows the head to fill out naturally. If she's not continuing to lie on that side now then a helmet is not going to add anything. The consultant said in very rare cases where a child was disabled and it was impossible to avoid the pressure on the flattened area then a helmet was useful.

I recall still thinking my ds has a significantly flattened area around 11months. It was barely noticeable at 2 yrs

I'd really recommend seeing a craniofacial specialist first. I called one of those helmet clinics, it was LOC, they wanted my credit card before I could secure an appointment. You won't get impartial advice from them, they specialise in selling helmets. See someone impartial, if they think there's a case for a helmet they'll tell you, you won't get a NHS ref for the consultation though, the NHS definitely won't recommend a helmet.

I'm going to see if I can find the pics of the top of my ds's head, looking down, for you. The plagiocephaly is dramatic and the ear misalignment shocking. He's honestly fine now, age 4. I haven't thought about it for over 2 years

My ds had a wonky head and favoured one side, probably because I had a bicornate uterus and he got a bit squished in the womb. We didn't do anything about it and over time it corrected itself and he now has a perfectly ordinary head. It took about three years before his head stopped looking a triangular shaped but as he had curly hair it was only really noticeable when it was wet. He did start using his weaker side fairly quickly though and no one ever suggested treatment but it was almost 20 years ago when helmets were only used in fairly extreme cases (and before flat heads from sleeping position alone was much of an issue).

I hope the issue resolves itself quickly OP

Hope thus works, never tried to attach pic before. This is pic from top at 12 weeks old. You can't see his ears but I have outlines I will post next

This is outline of top of head at 6m old. Showing how misaligned ears are. Face would be at top of pic

This is pic at 11m old. Ears show much improvement as is flattened area. You can tell we weren't laid back about this, we monitored, charted, measured, I do understand how worried you are.

Thank you so much @Hohofortherobbers that's really helpful. DD's head looks exactly the same except with the flattening on the other side (see pic). I think if it was just flattening at the back I wouldn't be so concerned but the forehead worries me. I will look into getting advice from outside the helmet companies!

Not sure if any of these are good enough so see ds's head wonkiness :) Baby ones are at a few months, little boy one at eight I'd guess.

@Ihuntmonsters wow! What a change! You can really see the slope in the baby ones and then he looks perfect as a child. Thank you for sharing!

You should trace the outline like we did, you'll see the improvement clearly then over the next few months. My dh did it on the computer but you could just as easily trace onto tracing or grease proof paper. I am looking at pics of ds's face from the file we kept and would post them but they're obviously identifying, his left eye and forehead is significantly pushed forward at 8 weeks up to around 9m old. We started our programme of physio for the torticollis and repositioning at 3m, as you can see no real difference at 6m, but huge improvement by 11m. We'd stopped repositioning by 6m because he was naturally moving more independently and chucking the carefully positioned muslin out of the cot. If you are London area let me know and I'll send you our consultants contact details.The helmet can only stop her lying on the area, not squash it into shape. If she has no preferred position now that means the pressure is no longer on that spot and it will resolve. Good luck. I remember how anxious I was about this, let me know if you need more info.

He was a very froggy baby I do remember being worried about it. I don't think his ears were misaligned, although they were quite flat so it might not have shown. I couldn't find any baby pictures that showed both his ears. Wasn't an issue when he got glasses when he was about six anyway. I think we were more concerned about his movement when he was little, but he got into commando crawling very early and I think that strengthened his arms/shoulders.

@Hohofortherobbers yes please the contact details would be great!! Thank you for all your help!!

Mr Simon Eccles. Appts 0207 927 6518. The consulting suite 82 portland place London. That was 4 yrs ago, hope they're still the same numbers.

I was recommended a Mimos pillow by a friend and that worked wonders on mine, not cheap but cheaper than a helmet.

Head now looks normal unless you really scrutinise it.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I have basically just posted this exact same one about my 10 week old!

@Pp3000 have you got any further with this?

Interesting to read of @Hohofortherobbers experience, I'm going to be militant about repositioning and he's going to see the baby osteopath about possible torticollis.

Also I just spoke to Ahead 4 babies, would be interested in hearing your experience of them. Am so anxious about this!

Hi! I actually went ahead with the TIMband and it’s been great (except for some rubbing now and again). My baby’s head is so so so much better than it was before starting treatment. Hard to know whether it would have improved on its own but I feel better knowing I acted!! She’s had it nearly 4 months now and 2 months of treatment left.

my dn had one of these helmets fitted on Monday she is just coming up to 5 months. Was told the earlier they have them on the better. She has a flat head one side and a bulge on her for head. They are very expensive my sister went to a clinic in canary wharf for hers. Just hope it does the trick!!