Plagiocephaly - to Helmet or to not Helmet?

[fixyourselffirst]

My 8m son has mild plagiocephaly. We were advised by a consultant that there’s not enough research to say whether helmets make more of a difference than what just giving it time to correct itself would, but I fear it won’t ever fully correct itself. The consultant advised us to leave it and over time, as he grows, it’ll even out. Would love to hear some stories of no helmet & helmet therapy.

DS1 was born in the 90s and had a quite pronounced misshapen head. I was clueless about babies and didn't realise it was abnormal. However he saw a paediatrician when he was 6 months for other reasons and it was discussed and we were reassured it would right itself.
There was no mention of helmets (I only realised that was a thing recently).
By the time he was three it had straightened significantly, by the time he started school you would only know if you looked carefully. As a 30 year old adult his head is perfectly normal.

Thank you so much @flicktickthats really reassured me! Appreciate it

Adding to this thread as there was so little out there when I was doing my own midnight research a couple months ago!

I noticed my DS was developing plagiocephaly at 6 weeks. Was dismissed twice by GP’s as being something he’d grow out of. It became worse 6-8 weeks despite repositioning which was also impacting our sleep as a household. (Obviously not much of that at that age anyway!) We then had him in the Perfect Noggin mattress religiously overnight and it stopped getting worse but didn’t reverse.

At 4 months I called TIM and Ahead4Babies. TIM advised treating with tummy time until 6 months. Ahead4Babies saw us and laid out the options including non treatment. DS was borderline mild to moderate at 1cm. Would have been noticeable with a buzz cut later in life but otherwise hair would have covered it.

As he had a perfect head shape at birth, we didn’t feel it was fair for him to have that - so we went ahead. Ahead4Babies were clear, calm, non pressurising throughout. No question too small and we could WhatsApp any time with questions.

Our son settled into the helmet really well, he loves it so much he asks for it back during cleaning which honestly I thought was an exaggeration when Agi mentioned babies do that! It’s not! We have to clean the helmet for five mins in the morning and fifteen at night - otherwise it stays on, with a bit of a break for an hour in the evening.

I’d say it’s the most reassured I’ve felt during my pregnancy and post partum. It has taken away the anxiety that was building, especially knowing it’s a surgeon in charge of my son’s care.

So if you’re on the fence with a mild to moderate case and can afford treatment, we would highly recommend doing it and doing it early. It took 7 weeks from 4.5 months old to get from 1cm to 0.01cm. We aren’t quite done yet but if we stopped now obviously we would be thrilled with the result.

Other Info - our son had torticulus and we tried osteopathy before the helmet but our physiotherapy sessions didn’t start until 4 months and we have had two. We have been encouraging tummy time since birth but honestly he only started taking to it since swimming lessons at 4 months old - I think he finally saw the point! So we are glad we did the helmet whilst his neck movement and general movement development caught up.

Good luck everyone! X

My son had it, the back of his head at one side was flattened and at the other side was protruding. It caused his face to look asymmetrical. After medical advice and a bit of research we decided not to go ahead with a helmet. Somehow, it all came right naturally, whilst he was still an infant.