Anyone have any experience of helmets in young babies?

[SideshowBobster]

I have a 5 week old who needs a helmet to help her skull shape. Has anyone else had a baby fitted for a helmet? Did your baby take to it ok? Was it easy to get used to? How quickly did you see a difference in your baby's head shape? We have an appointment scheduled so I'll ask all these questions then, but just interested to hear experiences of other parents.

Anyone?

Who is your appointment with? Anyone selling you a helmet is going against NHS advice.

If you are worried about a significantly different head shape ask your gp to send you to see a paediatrician.

Geez this doesn’t sound right. Please ensure you are seeing an orthopaedic surgeon for this, it sounds like some quack advice IMO.

My dd had torticullis and plagiocephaly. She had a helmet at 10 months. This is late but the HV and GP wouldn't listen. You'll get people saying all sorts but you need to talk to people whose children actually needed it. You'll also get people saying their baby grew out of their flat head. The baby didn't have plagiocephaly in those cases

My baby has a genetic syndrome with craniosynastosis and has had neurosurgery. No one is selling me a helmet- it's being provided by the NHS, from a children's hospital under the recommendation of neurologists and the craniofacial service. So we're not going against NHS advice, nor is it "quack" advice.

@2025willbemytime did your baby take to the helmet OK? I know they're older than mine though so it'll be different. Did you find the helmet easy to cope with?

That makes sense, you should have stated this originally.

Why? I didn't see the relevance of explaining why we need the helmet as that wasn't really the point of my post. I am/was looking for the experience of other parents who have had children who have used helmets as I'm nervous about managing it, and worrying about things like my baby being distressed by the helmet or it rubbing her skin etc. Obviously I'll speak to the hospital about it when we're there too.

It was relevant because people use them for different purposes and for different periods of times. Your baby is very young so you are going to get people with older kids commenting and that is a much different experience.

Again, not what I asked. I asked for experience of helmet use, not why, that doesn't matter to what I am asking. And I stated the age of my baby. Have you had a child who has used a helmet?

She did. When it was fitted there were tears and when she wore it the first time but she was okay very quickly.

It was easy to manage. She wore it for 23 hours a day and I took it off at 6pm so she had an hour before bed and that was when I cleaned it as well.

Thank you. Glad your baby took to it ok. I'm expecting her not to like it initially but I'm hoping she gets used to it quickly.

@SideshowBobster she will get used to it and tbh if she needs it you have to manage her and have faith.

@2025willbemytime of course, it's the best thing for her so we'll manage. She's gone through so much in such a short time, it's just one more thing

It will be okay. We needed to be able to tell dd we had done all we could to help her. We were lucky in that it worked better than the doctor even expected.

@2025willbemytime I'm so glad it was successful for your daughter

Thank you. I hope it goes okay for you too.

@2025willbemytime hope you don't mind me asking another question- what did your baby wear at night with the helmet? My little girl is usually in a sleeping bag/dressed to room temperature, but I'm worried about her over heating in the sleeping bag if she's also wearing the helmet. Just wondering what others do, can't seem to find much advice on it. Thanks x

Hi, she just wore a baby grow and a washable nappy. I never used a sleeping bag so can't comment but my instinct would be babygrow and blanket.

I worked in a craniofacial unit some years ago , pre helmet use but did find this info from Alderhey

https://www.alderhey.nhs.uk/conditions/patient-information-leaflets/helmet-therapy-for-craniosynostosis/

@TheOliveFinch thanks for the link x