My son is getting a craniocap(helmet)

KaitlynnS · August 2013

Just wondering if any other mommy's have gone through their baby getting a helmet. I would love to talk and see what's best and what not about it. Thanks!

JenniferB1129128 · August 2013

One of my good friend's daughter has one. She said it took a little getting used to, and she had to pay attention to the specifics of the right way to put it on, off and maintain it... And make sure her providers do too...but other than that no big deal and her baby is so freaking adorable in it. If you have any specific questions message me and I can ask her.

schmood · August 2013

I'm an orthotist. Although I don't do helmets, I do know about them.

It's generally harder on the parents than on the babies. They adapt pretty well.

Let me know if you have specific questions.

momof2dd · August 2013

Yes. We just finished our treatments with PT and the Craniocap and the results are great! My daughter had a moderate/severe flatspot on her right side so she had her cap for 4 months. I am so glad we did it and I am so glad to be done.

We had started her PT at 2 months and I was desperately hoping to not have to have a helmet, but when it came down to it we really did. I look back at the before pictures and am amazed at the transformation.

Tips:

Keep your lil one cool. If they don't sweat in their helmet they don't get so stinky, otherwise they smell like a puppy.
We have a 2 story house, kept the air down to 66 at night, 67 during the day and her ceiling fan on the lowest setting.
Nightly baths
Keep in on! Before the hot summer months I made sure to have her helmet on for 23 hours. The last month she had longer breaks because if we were outside or if it was hot inside we had to take it off so she wouldn't be hot and miserable.
Cleaning the helmet...we used the Medela breastpump wipes to wipe it once a day. Then I used rubbing alcohol periodically after it dried.

Concerns:

The helmet does not cause baby's hair to fall out. My daughter was born with a full head of hair and at 4 months it started falling out in chunks on the sides and back and I was terrified. But my pediatrician said that was normal for that stage, nothing to do with the helmet. She didn't loose any one top so the helmet was a bonus to cover her crazy new hairdo. Her hair has since grown back, fuller then what fell out and she was in her helmet.
Babies really are not bothered by it at all. Depending on your babies age they don't even notice it. We started her treatment at 4 months and toward the end she would get a little irritated about putting it back on but it didn't affect her sleep or her mood at all.
Coincidence?? My daughter did start refusing a bottle after she got her helmet. Now was this teeth or was this helmet related, not sure, but after the worst of her teething was over (4 teeth all at once) she is now accepting a bottle again.

Hope this helps and please if you have any further questions I'd be happy to help. Even though this condition is curable and temporary its still hard. My 6 year old was actually sad to see her sisters helmet go, it became such a part of her. And the bonus you don't have to worry about the early falls when they are learning to sit or crawl.

hjoy_06 · September 2013

I have twin boys and BOTH have helmets

) Like the previous posters have said...harder on the parents than the babies! It did take a few days for them to get used to the helmet but after that they don't even seem to notice. I would say to be watchful for the first few weeks. Our Dr. wasn't real clear on what is okay and what's not and our boys heads got VERY irritated and completely scabbed over. The helmets were too tight and rubbing. After about a month of having to continuously go back to have them shaved down they finally got it and they're okay now. They've had them for about 7 weeks now that there has been "vast improvement" says our Dr. One was a mild flat and if he improves at the rate he has been he'll be done in about a month. The other was pretty severe (bottom, breach baby) so he might have to wear his a little longer. Seeing the improvements that we have I think it's definitely worth it. We did dress the helments up a bit with stickers. One has a dump truck, cones and it says "Under Construction" and the other has flat tires and it says "Fixing My Flat". It's like addressing the elephant in the room, everyone knows what the helmets are for and it's kinda funny...make the best of the situation

)

kluitjens@gmail.com · April 2014

We just had our son's helmet consultation yesterday at Gillette's. The doc said it was an 'average' case of plagiocephely so although we haven't made a decision yet, I'm leaning toward getting the craniocap. My question - I feel like I want it to be painted or something (not the boring white, although there's nothing wrong with that!) - did you get yours painted? Do you know where I could go about having that done?

megandscott07 · May 2014

kluitjens@gmail.com said:
We just had our son's helmet consultation yesterday at Gillette's. The doc said it was an 'average' case of plagiocephely so although we haven't made a decision yet, I'm leaning toward getting the craniocap. My question - I feel like I want it to be painted or something (not the boring white, although there's nothing wrong with that!) - did you get yours painted? Do you know where I could go about having that done?

Sorry this is such a late reply but maybe it will be helpful to you. You can't paint the helmets because they need to be adjusted every few weeks and they heat them up for the adjustments. I actually got really cute stickers in the scrap booking aisle at Target and just switched up the stickers every week for my son's helmet. I am very glad we did it!

My son is getting a craniocap(helmet)

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