Worth it to get the helmet

January 4, 2006

Hang in there. It is worth it to get the helmet. You are doing what you know is right for your child. You have every reason to be secure and confident about your decision.

Hopefully, your son will get use to to the helmet soon, but even if it bothers him some please remember that this is a non-invasive, safe procedure that will not hurt him - and that may be extremely important to him - especially if later in life he ends up a baldy like a number of the men in my family! (I adopted my child in August and decided to proceed with a doc band to address her moderate plagiocephaly. She is older so I do not expect a complete adjustment, but I expect about a 50% improvement. Even if it had been a more mild case, I would have done the band because that felt like the right decision for me for a lot of reasons.)

I am sure that your extended family and friends are wonderful people, but in this situation they are out of line. No one has the right to throw insults at you or call you superficial for moving forward with this treatment. Just as no one would have the right to call you "cheap" if you decided that this treatment was not needed for your child or that the significant cost burden was just not something that your family could swing. Both decisions are completely valid and you as the parent are the only one who can and should make this decision within the context of your family. You may want to ignore these folks and their comments or to kindly suggest to them that the decision has been made, that these comments are upsetting to you, and that you would prefer to have their support. Me - I am constantly changing the decorations on my little girls helmets and I think that this helps send the message to folks that I am OK with this and even having fun with it.

By the way, my little one had terrible rashes at first too. We changed to an every other day shampoo rather than every day. And about 20 minutes before the bath I lather her head up in Aveeno baby cream for excema (not the lotion) and let her look like a little grease monkey. Then I wash it all away, but that extra moisturizing has helped her skin a lot.

Hang in there!

--- In Plagiocephaly , "swthrtjen"

wrote:

>

> Hi all,

> My son was dignosed with plagio and tort at about 4 months by his

> peditrician only after I brought him in. I live in Boise Idaho and

> my doctor is very old school and suggested that we not treat our

> son. I went ahead and got the advice of a plastic surgeon who did

> not agree with our ped and did suggest a helmet. We went ahead and

> consulted with an orthotic specialist who fitted Nate with a Star

> Band helmet. It is considered "Cosmetic" and not covered by our

> insurance and cost 2000.00. recently I have gotten a lot of

insults

> from extended family and friends about how superficial I am to

treat

> such a "Minor" problem. Has anyone else ever gotten such grief

from

> others. It is hard enough to see your little baby unhappy about

> wearing a helmet. It is hard to get it on him and he sleeps

> terribly with it on. I am hoping that now that we are in day 5 he

> will start to sleep better. I had to keep the helmet off tonight

> becasue he developed a rash that did not go away.

>

> Please tell me that it is worth it to wear a helmet. My sons case

> is very mild and I want to feel like I made the right decision.

>

> Jen

> Nate 7 months Starband (on 5th day)

>

home email: swanawatha@...

work email: allen.catherine@...

January 4, 2006