Day 2 with helmet.... not going well

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/17/01 7:52:14 AM Pacific Standard Time, chipido@... writes:

.. First off, her tilt seems to be coming back! Is this normal? She has not tilted for 2 months.

Jackie - Get on Torticollis kids! You are going to see tilt with each new gross motor skill, crawling, walking and even sickness. You may be one of the few that resolve very young but don't be surprised to see that tilt until up and walking. Many battle until over a year. Give it a few days and take it slow on the helmet!

Tammy & 12/899

[Guest guest]

Hi. I am new here and have tons of questions. Carmie was diagnosed

with Tort at about one week and we have been doing stretches ever

since. She went to PT for a couple of months and was released about

6 weeks ago. Her tort was mild and she seems to be over that but we

will continue stretches at home until one year. She was diagnosed

with moderate plagio two weeks ago and she started wearing her helmet

on Thursday. She is wearing the clear plastic kind. First off, her

tilt seems to be coming back! Is this normal? She has not tilted

for 2 months. Secondly, she does not seem to be adjusting well to

the helmet. I know it has only been two days but she is pulling at

her ear and flinging her head back and forth like she is trying to

get out of it. She also pulls on it. I thought maybe she has an ear

infection so I took the helmet off and took her temp. It was normal

but she continued pulling at her ear and flinging. Today however she

seems fine. She also is only sleeping at 30 minute stretches before

having to be pacified. UGGHHH! Does any of this sound familiar? I

don't know if this is just normal adjustment or if I should call her

ped and rule out an ear infection.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Jackie &

Carmie who will be 5 months on Thursday

[Guest guest]

Jackie,

It sounds like you might have the same kind of helmet that my daughter has.

You can check out the files section and I have a folder there with 's

pictures. Ours is clear plastic with little holes drilled all over. I think I

would call the ped and rule out an ear infection because we have had similar

problems, but only when there was an ear infection. I would also call the

orthotist and explain what was happening and see if he/she could shed some

light on the matter. Perhaps you can go back in for an adjustment if the

helmet is rubbing the back or front of her ears. I cannot say that ever

had a problem with her helmet. She has never seemed to mind it and it did not

disturb her sleep patterns. She does take it off every now and then, but she

only started doing that in the last week and she is only about 2 weeks away

from the end of her treatment.

I hope this helps and feel free to email me directly if you want.

marcisch@...

Marci (Mom to )

Oklahoma

[Guest guest]

Secondly, she does not seem to be adjusting well to

> the helmet. I know it has only been two days but she is pulling at

> her ear and flinging her head back and forth like she is trying to

> get out of it.

Jackie,

My son also has the clear plastic kind of helmet and it took us about

2 weeks to get into a 23-hour-a-day routine. We only did short bits

of time in the helmet at first and worked our way up to 4 hours. Our

orthotist said that once we got that far, we could go full time. I

don't think you should worry after only two or three days. We really

despaired that this treatment wasn't an option for us at first when

Conor yanked at the helmet and cried when we put it on, but things

were much better by the end of that initial two weeks. (It helped

when we distracted him with things he really enjoyed.)

Good luck to you and your daughter.

, Conor's mom

[Guest guest]

Hi Jackie,

My son is in a DOC band, not exactly what Carmie has. We had some

different problems than you are experiencing initially. has

had his band now for 3 weeks and 3 days, and he's been OUT of it as

much as he's been in it. We had a lot of trouble with red spots not

fading in an hours time, which resulted in his forehead and sideburn

area getting pretty irritated. We had to leave the band off for days

to let his skin fully recover. It was like we had to completely

start over 3 times because of him being out of it so much.

Thankfully, it was much harder on me than .

He never had a problem sleeping in it, nor did he try to take it

off. In fact, he seemed fine in it every time he's had it on. I

think if he had reacted negatively to it, I might have burned the

thing, because I was so frustrated that it took us 3 weeks to finally

get a good fit, with no more red spots lasting over an hour. All is

well now, and I hope to see results soon! I guess what I'm trying to

say is that it might take Carmie a bit of time to fully adjust to her

helmet. Some babies seem to adjust faster than others. I know I

felt like 3 weeks was an ETERNITY to wait to have 's skin

adjust to the rubbing, so I am sure it would be even harder if he was

having other problems with it. The end result is what I keep trying

to focus on. :-)

Good luck to you and Carmie!

Debbie

Mom to (DOC banded 2/23/01)

> Hi. I am new here and have tons of questions. Carmie was diagnosed

> with Tort at about one week and we have been doing stretches ever

> since. She went to PT for a couple of months and was released

about

> 6 weeks ago. Her tort was mild and she seems to be over that but

we

> will continue stretches at home until one year. She was diagnosed

> with moderate plagio two weeks ago and she started wearing her

helmet

> on Thursday. She is wearing the clear plastic kind. First off,

her

> tilt seems to be coming back! Is this normal? She has not tilted

> for 2 months. Secondly, she does not seem to be adjusting well to

> the helmet. I know it has only been two days but she is pulling at

> her ear and flinging her head back and forth like she is trying to

> get out of it. She also pulls on it. I thought maybe she has an

ear

> infection so I took the helmet off and took her temp. It was normal

> but she continued pulling at her ear and flinging. Today however

she

> seems fine. She also is only sleeping at 30 minute stretches before

> having to be pacified. UGGHHH! Does any of this sound familiar?

I

> don't know if this is just normal adjustment or if I should call

her

> ped and rule out an ear infection.

>

> Thanks for any help you can give.

>

> Jackie &

> Carmie who will be 5 months on Thursday