"I'm helmet free!!"
Janie's journey began about a month after she was born, when we first noticed a little flat spot forming on the back of her head. We did the right thing by taking her to the doctor... three times... but I still think back and wonder if I should have noticed it earlier. There are just so many things that happen in the first few months with a newborn baby and lots to keep track of - When did she last eat? When did she last poop? When did she wake up from her last nap? How much sleep will I get this stretch? - that I didn't really start to notice her preference to the right until I really started paying attention to that little detail. But nonetheless, it was there; and it started to become prominent enough for her flat spot to get flatter and our worries to get... worrier.
Looking back, she definitely had a moderate case of plagiocephaly and so I don't feel quite as bad. I feel like we knocked out what could have been a bigger problem while it was still a little problem. About two months after our initial visit with our pediatrician, we got imaging done at Cranial Technologies, where they fit babies with these little helmets called DocBands. They reviewed her images with us and told us that she was a good candidate. Of course, they told us all the things that could go wrong if you don't go through with the helmet (terrifying) but we were already decided on moving forward with it, so that wasn't really a factor one way or the other.
Look at that pretty head.
On May 2nd - another two weeks-ish - Janie was getting fit for her DocBand. I must admit that I had never seen a baby wearing one of these helmets so despite the fact that everyone told me how common they were and how many times they had seen babies wearing them, I still felt like Janie was going to be stared at in public places - for the wrong reasons. I know, I know - it doesn't matter what other people think - but I really was down about her wearing this "thing" on her head and people not seeing her for the beautiful baby that she is. It was probably a good thing that Justin took her to the first appointment so that I didn't become an emotional train wreck. She was only 3 months old... I was still nursing and seriously horomonal. I cried a little when I first saw her in person and then on occasion after that but that lasted only for a day or two because like all things that are new and different, you just seem to adjust and then it becomes a new normal.
So we followed doctor's orders to a T and kept the helmet on 23 hours a day and cleaned both her head and the helmet every day. That thing smells like a stinky foot and it gets that way like 10 minutes after you clean it. Thankfully, we never seemed to deter people in the grocery store line with a foul smelling baby so I guess we did a good enough job with the cleaning. We checked her for red areas and took her in for fittings (one of the most important parts) every week. We were pleasantly surprised to notice a change not even two weeks after she had on the DocBand. Her doctors were happy with her progress as well! She must have hit a growth spurt at just the right time.
That's right! I did awesome!
We waited and waited for another growth spurt, which was all they thought she would need to be finished with her helmet treatment. We continued to go back for her weekly fittings and progress monitoring and right after I got out of school for the summer (second or third week in June) we were told that she was about done! Her second-to-last appointment at Cranial Technologies I was told that her end date would be the next appointment because she was growing out of her helmet anyways.
We decided to take off the helmet for good when we were giving her the hour long break she got every day and we could see the indentations of the helmet gaps on her head from across the table. Her therapist had mentioned that we may see this happen and once I saw it, I knew that was exactly what she meant. We had her final imaging done on June 25th and we have been loving on her helmet-free head ever since!
I had to include some of her before and after images in this post. Let me first preface these pictures by telling you that to capture the images, they put this little nylon beanie thing on baby's head. Like they are a baby gangster. I guess it makes it smooth and all so they can see all the curves on their head.
Top of Janie's head.
On the left you can see that the right side of her head had the flat spot forming.
Also, her forehead on the right side of her head was protruding slightly.
Both of these issues were addressed in the wearing of the helmet.
On the right you can see that the flattening evened out and her forehead aligned.
Way to go Janie belle!
Side of Janie's head.
On the left you can see that she was flat along the back and
had a hook-like head shape above her neck.
Also, the slope up her head from her forehead was more flat than round.
On the right you can see the rounded out back of the head as well as the top of the head,
a more even, rounded head shape!
I included this one for pure entertainment.
This is Janie's "WOAH. What's that sparkly toy?" face.
They had this magic toy that captured Janie's attention to keep her focused on one spot for the pictures.
They did tell us something about her eyes being sunken in, maybe the one on the right?
I didn't notice that as much but the baby beanies are pretty entertaining...
Janie wore her DocBand for a total of nine weeks. In two weeks it will have been just as long since she got it off. I can't believe how quickly it went by! We are so happy with her progress in the helmet and feel very grateful that it is not something we have to worry about anymore, or question ourselves about not doing. Now all we have to worry about is what on earth to do with Janie's head mold on a stick that they let us take home!!
It's framed in her nursery.
Okay, not really.
Along with Janie's DocBand treatment came physical therapy, which turned out to be more of a challenge than we expected. Again, we were going weekly to 30 minute sessions. We started by working on loosening up the tightness she had in her neck and increasing her range of motion. This required doing some stretches both at home and at daycare every day. Janie didn't seem to have much of a problem working through her tightness.
When the focus shifted to her neck and core strength we began to have some difficulty with her progressing as quickly. I think our therapist probably thought we weren't doing what she suggested at home! We were instructed to first work on exercises to help with her neck muscle strength. When that wasn't working, we began using that fancy tape that athletes wear on her neck as a sort of reminder to keep her head upright and use those muscles. When we finally saw improvements in her muscle strength, we started to focus on creating a good balance on the right and left sides of her body. By now, her "center" was a little off. Remember, we were working on a head tilt. Her "comfy-spot" was having her head tilt a little to the right. I also had to remind myself that she was going through a lot of changes developmentally during this time - holding up her own head, rolling from tummy to back, rolling from back to tummy, learning how to sit on her own, bearing weight on her arms, and even beginning to crawl.
Finally after exercising and taping not only her neck but her back & core muscles, we got Janie to decrease her head tilt gradually until we felt comfortable with her not needing therapy every week. We let her go two weeks between appointments and then a month. Janie was in physical therapy for a total of about 4 months: 10-12 weeks of weekly appointments, a biweekly appointment, and a monthly appointment.
So today we went to our very last appointment. I am so glad that Janie has made all the progress that she has and that she seems to be developing normally and evenly. When it all is said and done, we spent 6-7 months keeping up with her plagiocephaly & torticollis, and 3-4 months of treatment time to resolve those issues. I know that I will forever remember this time since it was emotional for me, but I know that looking back it will be such a little thing compared to all the things that she CAN do and WILL do!
Look at that cute face!
I love my sweet baby Janie soooo much!!
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