helmet for cosmetic purpose only?

katiemay06 · June 2010

We met with a plastic surgeon yesterday for our son's plagiocephaly. She said that there is no medical reason to use a corrective helmet, but we should consider it for cosmetic purposes only. She said that 6 months is "do or die" with the success rate of the helmet. My DH and I are so stressed about making the right decision for our LO! Has anyone else gone through this? I welcome any thoughts!

AMYfromKY · June 2010

Will the helmet hurt your LO? If not and there was a noticeable deformity (not the right word, but I can't think of a better one) of the head it would be an easy decision for me.

MnM1103 · June 2010

DD had a StarBand helmet for 3.5 months (5 months to 8.5 months old). While not putting your child in a helmet will not cause any developmental issues it CAN cause lots of cosmetic issues that could possibly turn into developmental issues. For example: babies who do not get helmets when needed tend to have facial assymetry which can lead to blurred vision if the eyes are out of alignment, hearing loss if the ears are out of alignment, slurred speach if the mouth becomes mis-aligned. It is a battle of deciding what to do. It probably depends on your childs "case" and how severe it is. With DD, we luckily caught it very early and decided to move forward at jsut over 4.5 months old & therefore was finished in jsut over 3.5 months. DD had moderate-severe plagiocephaly with a hint of bracheocephaly.

DH and I were really in a hard place b/c our insurance wouldn't & hasn't paid for any of the $2500 helmet. It was so worth it in the end, but you have to be 100% b/c you have to dedicate yourselves to it & the time to it (washing it every night, washing your child's hair everynight, giving them "breaks", etc). It's a lot of work but we don't regret 1 minute of it. You cannot tell DD ever had or needed a helmet. She has a beautifully shapely round head.

vkepple · June 2010

If it doesn no harm I would do it simply because I wouldn't want my LO ridiculed in school. Kids are mean and the world can be a harsh place but why make him go through that if it isn't necessary. If its not noticable then I don't see putting your LO in it. Hope that didn't sound mean, just trying to help.

MnM1103 · June 2010

....back to what I meant to say about the assymetry. DH and I would not be able to live with the fact that we did nothing to help our DD when we had the option, so we decided to move forward with the helmet. We could not imagine watching her grow with issues that we could have repaired and we didn't want to chance the "unknown", meaning not knowing if her vision, hearing or speaking would be disturbed. For us it was a no-brainer.

Best of luck!

MewMew · June 2010

I've become somewhat of a lurker around here, but I'm going to give you my input.

I would probably do it. The back of my head is pretty flat and it actually effects the way I sleep. If I sleep on my back I have terrible neck pain and a headache in the morning.

GL with your decision.

chick730 · June 2010

DD had a helmet, a DOC Band from Cranial Technologies. She only wore it for 6 weeks and got it on her 3 month "birthday". Our insurance company wouldn't cover it until she was 4 months old. Not wanting to wait and watch her head get flatter and flatter, we paid out of pocket ($3,500) for it. I didn't want to waste those valuable 4 weeks of growth.

I think it was the best investment we have made for DD so far.

tiffanylaw06 · June 2010

Our son has a helmet and it is his first week with it. He has moderate flatness in the back of his head because he sleeps that way and flips over onto his back and just generally spends too much time on the back of his head. We were told it was cosmetic in our case and that insurance would not cover it and also that it was time to decide since he was 6-ish months when we went to get our consult.

DH said he would regret not doing something to help him out down the road if it causes a problem. So we did it. So far so good. DS doesn't seem to mind it and he's napping right now with it on (his first nap wearing it). We have a hanger helmet if you have questions about this type.

GL in your decision.

Tara Ell · June 2010

I am dealing with a similar situation. I spoke to several pedis about it and they told me that the studies show no real difference in head shape if you choose a helmet or choose to do nothing. I am still taking DS to a cranial facial specialist anyway so when they tell me how severe his case is I will decide. I think unless it is severe I am going to wait it out. It seems to have already improved a lot now that he rolls.

anakin · June 2010

Dh saw 3 doctors (including a plastic surgeon) about his flat head and had the opinion of his occupational therapist added in. All of them said that there are no developmental issues with a flat head. That the reports claiming asymmetry can lead to hearing and vision problems are unfounded. (not faulting those who believe differently, just saying that we followed our doctor's advice). We were also told that 7 months is the time that a final decision has to be made. So there are a lot of differences between our story and others.

DS was evaluated at 5.5 months by the plastic surgeon and she left the decision up to us. We didn't want to spend the $3k if it wasn't necessary (our insurance would not cover a helmet) so we opted to wait until 7 months.

we saw a difference by 6 months. But if we hadn't seen a difference we would have gotten the helmet at 7 months. DS's forehead bulged on one side, the ridge above his right ear bulged and the right side if the back if his head was very flat. Yes, we believed it was purely cosmetic, but being a boy he would probably always short haircuts. So it was something we would have worked to correct. I'm not sure that we would have correct it if DD had a flat head that would have been covered by her long hair (though DD did not have a flat head..

Well technically we did work to correct it. He started sleeping on his stomach and we did a lot of stretches for his torticullus.

eee23 · June 2010

My DD had a flat head when she was a baby but it was never severe enough to warrant a helmet. I was concerned because of the way her head looked in the back (flat) and on the top (flat) but as soon as her hair grew in you couldn't tell at all.

NoJaneNoPain · June 2010

TBell9:
I am dealing with a similar situation. I spoke to several pedis about it and they told me that the studies show no real difference in head shape if you choose a helmet or choose to do nothing. I am still taking DS to a cranial facial specialist anyway so when they tell me how severe his case is I will decide. I think unless it is severe I am going to wait it out. It seems to have already improved a lot now that he rolls.

There are lots of pedi's that are very mistaken about choosing to do nothing. I'm sorry you believed them.

NoJaneNoPain · June 2010

anakin:
Dh saw 3 doctors (including a plastic surgeon) about his flat head and had the opinion of his occupational therapist added in. All of them said that there are no developmental issues with a flat head. That the reports claiming asymmetry can lead to hearing and vision problems are unfounded. (not faulting those who believe differently, just saying that we followed our doctor's advice). We were also told that 7 months is the time that a final decision has to be made. So there are a lot of differences between our story and others.

DS was evaluated at 5.5 months by the plastic surgeon and she left the decision up to us. We didn't want to spend the $3k if it wasn't necessary (our insurance would not cover a helmet) so we opted to wait until 7 months.

we saw a difference by 6 months. But if we hadn't seen a difference we would have gotten the helmet at 7 months. DS's forehead bulged on one side, the ridge above his right ear bulged and the right side if the back if his head was very flat. Yes, we believed it was purely cosmetic, but being a boy he would probably always short haircuts. So it was something we would have worked to correct. I'm not sure that we would have correct it if DD had a flat head that would have been covered by her long hair (though DD did not have a flat head..

Well technically we did work to correct it. He started sleeping on his stomach and we did a lot of stretches for his torticullus.

There are lots of pedi's that are very mistaken about choosing to do nothing. I'm sorry you believed them as well.

katiemay06 · June 2010

Thanks for all your responses. We are going Tuesday to get measured and begin the process with our insuranc (to see if they cover any of the cost and how much)!

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