Flat head syndrome/cranial bands

[Taffy01]

My son has been diagnosed with Torticollis which is preventing him turning his head to one side, consequently he always sleeps on the same side so is developing a flat side of head - everyone says this will right itself, but it is beginning to show on his face, one side of his forehead seems to stick out a bit... anyway, I have read about these cranial helments to help correct head shape - has anyone experienced similar symptoms and Im keen to hear anyones views/experiences on these helmets.....

Could an Amby Baby Hammock help? A lot cheaper than a helmet and from watching my baby sleep in one I can't see how any pressure could be exerted on the head.

The oesteopathic centre mentioned earlier that operates on a pay what you can afford basis is in Manchester too. Only go if you can pay less than the going rate and hold your head high though, they aren't shy!

I see plenty of older children with flat heads and my primary school sister says it is very common among her students, aged 10/11.

NHS does offer the helmet therapy in Bristol Frenchay hospital, I spoke to the consultant myself. Unfortunately we didn't live in the catchment area, the good old NHS post-code lottery as always...
Helmet therapy has been routinely used in the US for the past 20 years and it is fully covered by the insurance for the past 15.
To get the big nasty insurance companies to agree to pay out for the therapy, the research had to be immense.
Why is NHS not offering it more widely - it's quite expensive if done in the old fashioned way as in moulding the helmet. The new infra-red method as described above, is non-invasive and takes a minute.
The younger the baby, the shorter the time period they have to wear the helmet. Our DT loved his 'hat' and it was godsend while he was learning to crawl, less bumps and bruises :-)

Also, our insurance paid for the helmet as well, here in the UK.

Hi there. Just skim read the first few replies. My ds1 had flat head, it started off at the side and hv told me to encourage him to lay with his head on the other side, which I tried, then the whole back of his head went completely flat causing the bones to move around to the sides of his head making his face look an odd shape. He is now 19 months and still has a flat head but it's hardly noticable now with his hair. Our paed told us it would even out by the time he's 2, but can't see that happening. I mentioned it to hv because now ds2 looks like he's getting it, and she said it even's out closer to 5. She has 2 children that had it too.
It's purely a cosmetic issue and does not affect brain growth or developement, so for me, it's not worth going through having to wear a helmet for 23 hours a day. Surely that must have some sort of impact on head control? But I don't know, I'm not a doctor

OK, I give up. The country is full of flat headed children - I just haven't noticed them.

I just can't bear the thought that the vast majority of parents who simply can't afford the £2500 for a helmet are going to feel guilty and that they are somehow letting their children down.

I have not been able to find any independent research that concludes that plagicephaly in infants is anything but self correcting. But as SomeMightSay said, what do I know, I'm not a doctor. Mind you, neither, as far as I know, are the helmet manufacturers.

Such big claims, seeker. As you said, you are not doctor so what do you know. Let's leave it at that.
I'd suggest to do a bit more research on the topic.
Could a funny shaped head, so visible when swimming or having very short hair, not be a cause of ridicule and hence major blow to child's developing self-esteem?
If NHS opinion is all that matters then why not contact Bristol hospital directly.

Just looked at a few more posts, and someone (seeker?) said that they have never seen scholl aged children with flat heads. How long ago where we advised to lay babies on their backs to sleep? The number of flat head babies has increased because of the 'back to sleep' position so is it possible that the reason 5yo's + don't have flat head because the advice 5+ years ago was to lay babies on their fronts?

Seeker, one of the helmet providers is run by maxilliofacial surgeon-that would make him a doctor. The others are staffed by orthotists who are medical professionals specialising in prosthetics.

Maybe you need to do your research too before making assumptions.

I can see your point but really think you need to trust that parents are capable of doing their own research and making a decision that is right for them and their children.

Somemightsay
This graph shows the effect of back sleeping on SIDS, and seems to show the BTS campaign beginning in 1994.
graph

Opps, ignore me, those figures are from the USA. It is 1991 for the UK launch of BTS .

"Could a funny shaped head, so visible when swimming or having very short hair, not be a cause of ridicule and hence major blow to child's developing self-esteem?"

Where did I say it mightn't? I'm just sceptical about any treatment that costs lots o money and which isn't deemed necessary by most paediatricians.

Mmm you may have hit the nail on the head seeker-a treatment that costs lots of money but isn't deemed necessary by paediatricians. Think there may be a connection?

My sons paediatrician acknowledged that in his experience some 'flat heads' did not self correct but that the medical profession viewed the problem as 'cosmetic'. Its a much debated issue.

What I object to is people saying 'oh it corrects itself' when even the medical profession don't agree. Better to say that we don't really know and that it depends on all kinds of variables such as the age of the child, severity of the condition etc

I am as cynical about the medical profession as anybody I know - but I refuse to believe that paediatricians as a profession are conspiring to condemn thousands of children to a lifetime of needless physical and emotional problems which could be easily be corrected by early intervention.

People must of course do what they think best for their children. But I do worry about the majority for whom £2500 might as well be a million.

And, I repeat, where are the thousands of flat headed children which should be everywhere if the condition is not self correcting?

Case in point:
MiniRollmops twin1 - severe case of plagiocephaly.
MiniRollmops twin2 - mild case of plagiocephaly.

MiniRollmops twin 1 was treated with the helmet therapy and the condition was fully corrected, asymmetry close to 2cm reduced to 0.1cm.
MiniRollmops twin 2 - no treatment, the asymmetry has not changed, even a mm. .

Have you not read the posts on here seeker?

Most children also have hair which would tend to disguise flatness so no you probably don't see 'thousands of flat headed children everywhere'. Hardly a scientific way of proving your self correction theory.

I'm also a sceptic by nature and I researched the area meticulously a couple of years ago when my son had his problem. I could not make any conclusion because the research was inconclusive.For that reason I decided to go ahead with banding having tried other ways of resolving the issue. I'm afraid guilt didn't come into it for me.

There are many health/medical problems that have been hotly disputed such as autism, ME and dyslexia. It doesn't mean they do not exist or that they have not impacted on peoples lives.

We were under cranio-facial team at Chelsea and Westminster. We saw Norman Waterhouse (i seem to recall that he leads a team who perform major reconstructive surgergy for cleft palate and similar for children in the developing world) So we never actually saw a paediatrician!!!!!!!
DS head shape was by no means life threatening but he still supported us in having a helmet made. Yes, there is an issue about cost but the team at C&W and Charing Cross clearly felt that there was a need.This was summer 2004.
So Bristol are,and Chelsea and Westminster were/?are offering the service.
Seeker, there are flat headed children out there, mine walks around with permanent 'bed head' as a disguise!

It isn't a cosmetic problem if your child develops eye problems and can't get glasses to fit because the ears aren't in line.

Maybe there are those that think the helmets aren't necessary, but they don't do any harm, and you will sometimes never know how things would have been if you had done nothing.

You're not really listening Seeker. Noone here has said that plagiocephaly NEVER self corrects - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Whether or not it does can depnd on how severe it is to start with.

I never found any research that conclusively said that plagio could cause developmental problems but if I'm being honest the cosmetic issue was the major factor that steered me towards helmet treatment. I don't really care if people find that superficial i really don't.

I my experience and I can only really speak for myself i do not believe DS's head would have self corrected and the reason I believe this is that we noticed the plagio at 8 weeks, so very young and plenty of time to reposition successfully. I did EVERYTHING possible to reposition him, he had a special mattress, pillows for his pram, neck support for his car seat. I used a sling as much as possible, gave him tummy time, took him to regular appointments with a cranial osteopath and it did not change his head one bit.

I did all this for 6 months as I desperatley didn't want a helmet but I believe that if there was no improvement after all that intervention for that period of time then it was never going to self correct. Particularly after one year of age when growth slows and after 2 years when the skull is much harder.

How can paediatricians recomend a treatment that the NHS do not provide? If they recomend it they have to provide it surely. Personally I do not wish to see helmets offered on the NHS, what I want to see is parents being given appropriate advice on how to avoid it and GP's recognising it and offering repo advise and physio where necessary. Torticollis is generally present from birth so GP's should be picking up on it at the 6 week check and referring for physio then. As stated before plagio will NOT resolve if the torticollis remains.

As for the money grabbing helmet providers -well they produced a product that resolves plagiocephaly and like ANY private medical treatment it costs alot of money. But as it's been pointed out providers are proffessionally trained orthotists, the helmets are custom made and during the course of treatment you have regular reviews. I never felt any pressure to go ahead with treatment from the providers, in fact I know many of them will see you for free and offer repo advise and then see you again for free too measure any improvement.

Look OP at the end of the day there are two possible outcomes

1. It will self correct and you'll be glad you didn't get a helmet.

2. It won't self correct.

If it's the second outcome you need to decide how you will feel about that.

You're not really listening Seeker. Noone here has said that plagiocephaly NEVER self corrects - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Whether or not it does can depnd on how severe it is to start with.

I never found any research that conclusively said that plagio could cause developmental problems but if I'm being honest the cosmetic issue was the major factor that steered me towards helmet treatment. I don't really care if people find that superficial i really don't.

I my experience and I can only really speak for myself i do not believe DS's head would have self corrected and the reason I believe this is that we noticed the plagio at 8 weeks, so very young and plenty of time to reposition successfully. I did EVERYTHING possible to reposition him, he had a special mattress, pillows for his pram, neck support for his car seat. I used a sling as much as possible, gave him tummy time, took him to regular appointments with a cranial osteopath and it did not change his head one bit.

I did all this for 6 months as I desperatley didn't want a helmet but I believe that if there was no improvement after all that intervention for that period of time then it was never going to self correct. Particularly after one year of age when growth slows and after 2 years when the skull is much harder.

How can paediatricians recomend a treatment that the NHS do not provide? If they recomend it they have to provide it surely. Personally I do not wish to see helmets offered on the NHS, what I want to see is parents being given appropriate advice on how to avoid it and GP's recognising it and offering repo advise and physio where necessary. Torticollis is generally present from birth so GP's should be picking up on it at the 6 week check and referring for physio then. As stated before plagio will NOT resolve if the torticollis remains.

As for the money grabbing helmet providers -well they produced a product that resolves plagiocephaly and like ANY private medical treatment it costs alot of money. But as it's been pointed out providers are proffessionally trained orthotists, the helmets are custom made and during the course of treatment you have regular reviews. I never felt any pressure to go ahead with treatment from the providers, in fact I know many of them will see you for free and offer repo advise and then see you again for free too measure any improvement.

Look OP at the end of the day there are two possible outcomes

1. It will self correct and you'll be glad you didn't get a helmet.

2. It won't self correct.

If it's the second outcome you need to decide how you will feel about that.

Oh and there are many treatments out there that are purely cosmetic and cost thousands when done privately but that doesn't make them questionable

I really get annoyed at the "hair will cover it" argument. Male pattern baldness runs in my family so what then?

It's not flat headed children it's flat headed adults we need to see.... the back to sleep advice that has caused all these issues only came out 20 years ago so maybe we should be snooping around universities and colleges trying to spot uncorrected plagiocephally and facial assymmetry!

Have you considered using one of these?
www.goigoibabypillows.co.uk . A friend of mine was recommended that she use one for her 12 week old who is quite flat headed. I can't say how he's doing as it's still early days, but worth a try.

I appreciate that the use of pillows of this kind is quite controversial in the UK (the Swedes swear by them, apparently) but that's for you to decide...

My boys had all the pillows out there, including the Love Nest, GoiGoi pillow, they had special tummy time play mats, you name it. Didn't help an iota.
It does depend on the severety of the plagio and the age of the baby. I suppose if you start your baby with one of those pillows at birth, it could work.