Getting the news that your child needs a medical helmet can be very daunting. Tears can be shed and you may have a million questions like I did. We have been there and are through it now and I’d like to share my experience so I can help anyone who might be in the same boat as I was. My 7 month old baby needed a helmet and this was our experience.
To start at the beginning (but not go into insane detail) my babe, Violet, had torticollis and went to physical therapy from when she was 4 to 6 months old.
Torticollis is defined as a condition in which the head becomes persistently turned to one side.
Violet favored her right side and slept that way frequently. I’m not sure if it’s something that started in the womb or something she preferred but she started getting a tight neck and a slight flat spot on the back right side of her head.
Her pediatrician was amazing at keeping an eye on it and talking to me about further treatment down the line if it came to it. That’s why we started therapy as soon as we could and didn’t go for very long because we caught it early.
At the end of our therapy appointments the physical therapist recommended getting a free helmet consultation because he still saw a slight slant on the back of her head. At 6 months old we went to that first appointment and they took a 3D scan of her head and did very precise measurements to calculate if she needed a helmet.
The math of it all is this: since her flat spot was on the back right of her head they took the measurements from the diagonal. The magic number they come up with is the difference from both sides. They want to see less than 7 mm. She was at a 6!
Woohoo no helmet! We would do a recheck a month later to see if it got better or worse. (You guys are clearly reading the title and knowing how this is going to go…)
A month later and the difference from the sides of her head was at 12 mm. Not what we wanted to hear.
Things moved quickly after that. We were scheduled for a fitting and she was in the helmet less than a week later.
The first week is probably the hardest because she had to wean into it. We had a specific schedule of taking it on and off and cleaning it. After that week I thought she’d never get used to it but after wearing it consistently she really didn’t realize it was on her head.
She ended up wearing the helmet just under 3 months and wore it 23 hours a day.
They aren’t kidding when they say it’s way harder for the parents than for the child. I hated seeing that on my baby’s head every day. I hated the endless questions, trying clean it perfectly, managing the schedule, waiting for it all to end.
But it did end and here’s what I learned:
1. This was all in all a good thing. She absolutely needed the helmet and I should never second guess myself with that.
2. I was able to educated myself and so many others through this process. I got endless questions thrown my way and sometimes I didn’t have the answer. But I’m glad people asked me things instead of immediately judging.
3. Violet was not traumatized by having a hunk of foam and plastic on her head. She will never remember this event in her life, only I will. She had a quick fix to her noggin when she was a baby and it was for the better!
4. I learned lots of patience. If you don’t already learn patience as a mother you sure are gonna with a medical helmet. They don’t give you an end date with all of this so you’re just hoping and praying!
5. Just because a helmet is something “NEW” doesn’t mean it’s the wrong thing to do. The amount of times I was told “well when my kids were young……….” goodness sakes! Yes, we know that helmets are a new invention but it’s also way more relevant because safe sleep is to lay your child on their back now.
6. Everything boils down to doing what’s best for your baby and your family. My husband and I talked about this and knew it’s what we had to do. With the help of confident doctors and a diagnosis we trusted we knew it was right.
I’m finally finishing this post months after Violet has been done with her helmet and I can confidently say I don’t even remember everything about that time. It’s passed by in such a blur like so many things in her childhood that have flew by already!
As much as so many things sucked going through it, and like so many things you can’t see past the actual moment, I’m so glad we went through it. Violet has a lovely round head that definitely would have gotten extremely worse with time.
That’s our story! Violet got her helmet off and hasn’t looked back! She is moving and eating and chatting just like any other baby. The helmet didn’t slow her down or hold her back.
Let me know if you have any helmet questions and I can answer them to my best ability (as I am not a medical professional).
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