Helmet Parenting

We had our Second Official Helmet Visit Today

Today was Jameson’s second official helmet appointment to check on the progress of his head reshaping. So far he has had a four-millimeter shift in the shape of his, which is pretty good considering he started at a 10-millimeter shift. And much to our surprise, he doesn’t really hate the helmet. When we take it off for cleanings he will actually reach for it and play with it. Even at his last doctor’s appointment, the doctor was taken aback by the fact he likes his helmet.

The issue though, Jameson is becoming a bit of a daredevil with it on. When he’s on his play mat, before he starts rolling around playing with his toys, we will throw himself backward slamming down on the back of his head. When he does have the helmet on, it’s not that big of a deal, but when it’s off for that one hour a day and he does it, the outcome is a lot different. Let’s just say without the helmet on, it’s not enjoyable for him.

Anyways, at today’s appointment, Jameson had another two-millimeter shift. That’s a total of a six-millimeter shift in a month and a half. This means that he is now 60% done with his correction. The technician at Children’s OP thinks he should have only two appointments left. Then the whole helmet wearing should be over and Jameson will have a 100% correction. And the helmet can then become decoration as a reminder of the very real need for these prosthetics in the fight against flat head syndrome.

After we found out the results of the two-millimeter shift, there were a few spots that the technician ground down on the inside of Jameson’s helmet that was rubbing on a few spots of his head. This happens as the head shape starts to change. Parts of the head literally grow into the shape of the helmet, so as one side of the head is touching the helmet the side that’s not is growing to fill in that space. Making that shape adjustment. And those spots will of course rub and cause some red marks that may not go away within the allotted one hour of wait time. But once those adjustments were made, his helmet got a new mark on where to close it and we were off for another month of shape-changing and healing.