Helmet?

agdgirl27

So I took my boys to their 4 month appointment on Friday and our pedi wants Carter to go to a plastic surgeon.  He believes that he may need a helmet for purposes of shaping his head b/c he has a pretty bad flat spot.

 If he neeeds a helmet, how many weeks/months do they usually have to wear them and how many hours in the day.

MassaRN

My dd had a helmet.  Her case wasn't that bad, so she obly had to wear it for 4 months, 23 hours a day.  From what I was told it is usually 6 + months, 23 hours a day.  It definately wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  DD could have been done faster, but she didn't always wear it 23 hours a day because she got it in July and it was so hot here that she would just be dripping sweat down her face.  I was surprised how fast the time passed.  Good Luck with it, nd try not to worry too much about it.

Moonpie73

One of my daughters has a helmet.  Her flat spot isn't that bad so they said it'll probably about 3 months of having to wear it for 23 hours a day.  She goes for her 1 month check today.  We can already see a difference in her head shape.

 Only thing different with us is we didn't see a plastic surgeon.  We were sent to a neursurgeon and then they sent us to an orthotics place to get the helmet.  In total it was $3,300 for her helmet of which our insurance covered all but $700, so a good thing is to check with your insurance too to see what kind of coverage you have.

Tammy06

I would also get a 2nd opinon. Both my boys have been flat since about 3.5 months. At 4 months the pedi told us not to worry it will round when they hold their heads up, they were 2 months early so laid on their head more than a term baby. At 6 months they are holding their heads up more and loving tummy time, still flat at appointment, he said as the brain grows as long as their is a soft spot and no defects *apparantly there are some that can cause the skull not to form correctly, and this would have to be surgically done, and it's rare* , that it will round out, in his practice he has only seen one need a helmet. They got to a wonderful pedi, he's on our local news for questions and top of the local hospitals. It's also a huge practice. He says the brain will naturally do it and the helmets aren't that needed, and they are way over prescribed. The boys now roll over all the time and sleep on their tummies by their choice and in two weeks I can see a difference. Now he said by their 9 month is should be better and wouldn't be too late for a helmet if some odd reason it doesn't round out.  Good luck! I think if you go to a Neuro they WILL give you helmet, why not, more money for them. You go to a plastic surgeon and ask for an opinion, of course they will give one in their favor. Just another opinon. I think 4 months, unless it's really severe is a bit early, they are just strengthing their necks at this age, see what happens.

Kim&Jim

We went through a company here in Dallas called Cranial Technologies.  All they do is helmets.  While I can see that they may be over-prescribed, I had them check Keegan and they didn't recommend one for him and if they were in it for the money, they would have suggested he get one as well.

That being said, we have one for Brady.  His flat spot was more than average based on the measurements.  Normal was 2 to 3mm difference between sides and his was 17!

A lot of kids do grow out of it, but not all of them and we wanted to get him in now.  The longer you wait, they longer the child will probably have to wear it because their head growth slows down at about 7 months.

We have our exit appointment on Wednesday.  If he gets it off, he will have had it for 10 months.  Otherwise they'll rec that he wears it for 2 more weeks for a total of 3 months.

He wears it 23 hours a day except on Friday.  The therapist takes it off when she is here so it's only 22 hours on Fridays.