Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Flat head brachycephaly plagiocephaly

36 replies

PrettyMaMa · 17/02/2022 20:06

Anyone used a helmet for their child and are the results good ??
Going into this journey and would love some advice from any parents

Any before an afters???
Who did you work with ??

plagiocephaly
brachycephaly

OP posts:

Duttercup · 17/08/2022 18:40

@Speedyshoes as someone with a PhD, you know you best get some links up to this evidence, as others have done to support their position.

Dreikanter · 17/08/2022 19:28

Speedyshoes · 17/08/2022 18:32

@Dreikanter
Even significant (i don't personally like the term severe, because there are no medical consequences, so to me it seems emotionally loaded) plagiocephaly has no medical consequences.
Why do something about it? Because of how some parents feel. I hated the way my daughters head looked. It changed how I felt about her. It kept me awake at night. I thought everyone was judging me. Initially, I thought it was my fault and that I had "broken" her. Even once I had learned that it was purely cosmetic (ie no medical consequences) that didn't change how I felt about the LOOK of it. I know, from talking to other parents, that I am not the only one. Does that make me shallow, or superficial? Quite possibly. But I couldn't change it. What I could change, with my disposal income, and available time, was the shape.

What the NHS consistently fails to take into account is that emotional toll. There probably is a way to measure it, but I don't know how, I am not a social scientist.

The NHS has been recommending repositioning for 30 years. With a child with torticollis, it is futile. My daughter could not physically look the other way. I had her in Physiotherapy from 6 weeks old, but she still flattened. The constant insistence by the NHs that you can reposition, drives parents (who believe the failure is down to them) to desperate measures, buying unsafe pillows or wedging the cot mattress. The incidence of flattening has remained unchanged since the advice to reposition was first introduced - as a strategy it has demonstrably been found wanting.

@Speedyshoes

A parent’s “emotional toll” is not a reason for clinicians to prescribe treatment where there is little evidence for its efficacy.

welshweasel · 17/08/2022 20:29

Even if the only reason to treat is ‘emotional toll’ there is no robust evidence that using a helmet results in better results than allowing nature to take its course! As soon as babies start sitting up the head shape starts to resolve. Use a helmet, head shape will improve. Do nothing, head shape will improve.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General parenting

LouisRenault · 17/08/2022 20:45

Why do something about it? Because of how some parents feel. I hated the way my daughters head looked. It changed how I felt about her. It kept me awake at night.... What the NHS consistently fails to take into account is that emotional toll.

Medical treatment of a child must be in the best interests of the child. Must be. NHS doctors cannot recommend treatment that has no medical benefit for the child because it will benefit the parents.

Speedyshoes · 18/08/2022 15:59

@welshweasel

You wanted robust evidence that helmets can correct cranial asymmetry. The following are quality peer reviewed papers, published in very reputable journals and are a good place to start:

Vles JS, Colla C, Weber JW, et al. Helmet versus nonhelmet treatment in nonsynostotic positional posterior plagiocephaly. J Craniofac Surg 2000;11:572Y574

Littlefield TR, Beals SP, Manwaring KH, et al. Treatment of craniofacial asymmetry with dynamic orthotic cranioplasty. J Craniofac Surg 1998;9:11Y17

Graham JM Jr, Gomez M, Halberg A, et al. Management of deformational plagiocephaly: repositioning versus orthotic therapy. J Pediatr 2005;146:258Y262

Teichgraeber JF, Ault JK, Baumgartner J, et al. Deformational posterior plagiocephaly: diagnosis and treatment. Cleft Palate
Craniofac J 2002;39:582Y586

Lee R, Teichgraeber J, Baumgarter J, et al. Long-term treatment effectiveness of molding helmet therapy in the correction of posterior deformational plagiocephaly: a five-year follow-up. Cleft Palate Craniofac J 2008;45:240Y245

Speedyshoes · 18/08/2022 16:01

@LouisRenault the NHS doesn't have to recommend any intervention. It's not the doctors decision whether or not to intervene in a purely cosmetic issue. It is the parents decision.

Speedyshoes · 18/08/2022 16:05

@Duttercup Happy to cite evidence for anything I've said (except for what ive stated as personal experience which is obviously tricky!) Please could you be more specific as to what you would like references for?
Also, please bear in mind, I am not arguing that anyone SHOULD helmet their child. I'm just bemused that people seem to be arguing that other people shouldn't make the decision they feel is best for their child - that's quite presumptuous.

Nania60 · 31/01/2023 02:50

@123usernamesilly hello, can I ask you what pillow did you use & when did you use it, also at night time?
thank you

Speedyshoes · 31/01/2023 16:26

@123usernamesilly don't use a pillow. Pillows increase the risk of SIDS by 2.5 times. They are also ineffective - nothing soft and conforming can reshape the cranium. If you have a Facebook account, ask to join the Noggin Doctor's Plagiocephaly and Torticollis Discussion Board. The craniofacial paediatric plastic surgeon who runs it will answer all your questions.

absmildred · 02/02/2023 18:44

Hi. My son is nearly 3. I was told he would grow out of it and his head would correct itself..it hasn't! I don't know if a helmet would have helped. But now I just keep getting told that there is nothing I can do. It's quite flat at back and I am struggling to get bike helmets and hats to fit .. so don't agree with some of the others on here! My son has 49.5 cm head but the bike helmets for this size are too narrow. My son cries because they hurt. I have had to buy one that is for 6years + but it really doesn't fit well and I worry that if he falls off his bike he will get hurt. I am actually going to see a consultant next week to see if there is any last hope. They say it's purely cosmetic but kids get bullied for so much stuff.

BluesandClues · 02/02/2023 23:24

My two had flat spots when they were babies, both in their teens and heads very much head shaped now.

Flip

1 2