Helmet Graduation!

Wednesday was E’s last day wearing his helmet! See you later!

I realized that I never posted any follow up after that emotional first helmet post. (And once again, thank you so much for all those kind comments and support!) So I guess now is a good time to review everything that happened after that. (Which isn’t very exciting, really.)

The total time he wore it was about three months. The orthotist says most babies average 4-6 months, which is what she initially told us. I am really happy that it ended up being less time!

So first, a few more details about the how and the why:

We went to one of the local Hanger Clinics, and worked with a wonderful orthotist. The helmet is basically a mold. They scan the head and then I guess they project out what they want the measurements/shape to be, and make a foam model of that, and mold the helmet from that. So it forces the head to grow in that direction. The helmet is hard molded foam with a hard ‘shell’ outside.

They have to leave room for normal head growth–they make it a certain maximum diameter. If the baby’s head grows beyond that measurement, then the helmet is obviously no longer worn.

There were two things that the helmet was supposed to improve for E’s head shape. First was the flat spot (plagiocephaly), obviously; he had an asymmetry of 10mm. The other was the roundness of the entire back of his head. This is measured as a percentage of length versus width. “Normal” people have like 75%. E’s started at 95%–meaning it wasn’t long enough for the width. The back needed to round out.

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E took to the helmet like a champ. The weaning-on process takes about a week, as the baby wears it longer and longer until it’s up to 23 hours a day. By then we were getting used to it, and soon enough all that emotion had completely dissipated. I found him really cute in his helmet, and it just became part of him. I kind of forgot to notice it anymore.

We did get a few comments here and there, from strangers while out in public, or from acquaintances looking at photos. I was relieved that the comments weren’t mean-spirited or anything, either it was a polite question or something about football or whatever.

Getting him dressed was a pain–we tried to only change him during his helmet break. There were plenty of times when we had to change his clothes while he had his helmet on, and we would usually put on his onesie from the bottom up. That was really annoying. Though, a few weeks ago, we noticed that our nanny was able to get some of the onesies over his helmet, which made things a little faster and easier.

Also, his head was smelly and sweaty when we took the helmet off. Really, it was the helmet that was stinky–but during the helmet break, it wasn’t pleasant to smell his head. I obviously tried to get in extra snuggles and kisses, but the odor was very noticeable.

E had some skin issues with a few contact points–along his forehead and along the right side of his head, especially his right ‘sideburn’. Every time we took off the helmet, he would scratch at the back/right areas of his head. It was adorable and kind of pitiful. On our visits, the orthotist would shave down the foam to make it more comfortable. The redness and irritation never stopped occurring, though.

If he was really, super tired, sometimes he would kind of grab at the edge of the helmet as if to take it off. And sometimes M liked to grab the helmet if E’s head was close. And E figured out how to undo the velcro! He would only do it while he was lying down drinking a bottle, and he would do it over and over, kind of meditatively.

I honestly thought one of us was going to suffer a  broken nose. When he was tired, E would kind of drop or throw his head down (you know what I’m talking about, right?), and he bonked us in the face with the helmet numerous times, often on the nose. It hurt! A lot!

At the one-month follow-up appointment, E’s asymmetry had shrunk to 4mm! This was unusual–it usually happens much slower, so the orthotist was very surprised and pleased. She said we must have gotten the helmet on right before a growth spurt, which is fantastic timing.

By the second month, it was down to 3mm, and then we were basically waiting for the length/width measurement to go down. She wanted it to get anywhere in the 80s. I think at that point it was 91%. But it still looked much rounder in the back than it used to:

A couple weeks ago, his head measurements were getting close to the maximum–like two millimeters. She cut out a section of the foam in the back (so that part was ‘open’ to the inside of the outer shell, but his head wasn’t directly in contact with it) to give some more room. She said we could continue or stop now–we said we might as well go as long as we can.

Last week, we noticed an area of red, scaly bumps on the back of E’s little head. I wondered if it was irritation from the new edge of the foam. So I took him in, a week before our scheduled appointment with the orthotist. She had never seen that kind of reaction, though she did determine that it lined up with the foam edge. His head circumference was basically at the max for the helmet, and his length/width percentage was at 90.1%, which is so tantalizingly close to the goal.

So we decided that we should just stop the helmet. (My husband was out of town and we’d discussed it by phone earlier, so I was glad that I wasn’t making the decision alone on the fly.) Apparently there’s usually a weaning off process, where the baby wears it only for naps and bedtime. That irritation needed to heal, though, so we figured we’d try for quitting cold turkey.

She took another scan of his head to compare, and gave us a little ‘graduation’ certificate for the scrapbook.

It’s now been a few days with no helmet. E has had no problems going without it–I guess he doesn’t miss it! And we don’t either. I was happy to discover that his head stopped smelling the very next day. The irritation on his forehead and sideburn are fading and healing, though the bumps on the back are still there.

I was looking at a few photos from just recently, and already the helmet looks kind of odd and out of place. I guess I got used to him looking like himself again right away. I sure am loving being able to kiss his head while snuggling him.

Also, his hair has grown bigger. It used to stick up in funny shapes, but now it’s too long for that. Somehow in the back it puffs up and over to make his head look much bigger (and rounder) than it really is. I guess that’s good?

So now that both of our babies are headgear-free, we have realized that um, dang, these babies can look reaaaally similar sometimes. We got lazy about really looking at their faces! I am excited to be able to focus on both of their adorable selves the same way again.