Plagiocephaly

You are wondering what plagiocephaly means right? Plagiocephaly is the asymmetrical distortion or "flattening" of the skull. Mr. Sam was diagnosed with plagiocephaly over the past few months. It has been something that we have noticed since he was about 3 months old but thought that the right back portion of his skull would fill out once he started sitting up and not laying on his head so much. After several months of monitoring and repositioning, the doctor thought it would be best that we see a specialist to have him fitted for a DOC-band helmet. We took him to a facility to have his head scanned to find out just how much difference the right side was from the left. Most people didn't even notice the difference unless we pointed it out. We really noticed it when he was taking a bath and his hair was wet. His poor little head was completely flat! After doing the scan, they found that the difference was about 12mm, therefore, a helmet was recommended for us to see any future change. We thought long and hard whether to go through with it or not as it was considered cosmetic so insurance didn't pay for the helmet. And let me tell you, the helmet is not cheap!! After much consideration, and thinking of Sammy going bald and having to deal with a flat head, we decided to go ahead and proceed. He was fitted for the helmet and it arrived about 2 weeks later. We took baby steps introducing the helmet to him. The first day he wore it 1 hour and had it of for 1 hour. This proceeded for about 6 days until he was finally wearing it full time (23 hours/day). I think this introduction is more for the parents, Sammy didn't seem to mind it at all but it made me cry seeing him in it the first week!!! He has now been wearing it for about 3 weeks and he doesn't even notice it at all. It has grown on me as well. We doctored it up with construction stickers and painted a "under construction" sign on the back. It is super cute and he looks great in it. We had our first appointment with the orthotic specialist last week and he has already improved to a 8mm difference. They are hoping to get him down to 3-4mm difference so we are half way there! We are hoping that he won't have to wear the helmet more than 3-4 months. I am really glad we decided to go ahead with it and I know Sammy will appreciate it one day when it is cool to shave his head (or he goes bald!)