When we had the DSi for Little Man's second helmet, it was 7 weeks into his first one. I was told he had two weeks remaining and, thus, thought there would be no lapse. However, when he went for his weekly adjustment at Cranial Technologies on February 18th, his clinician shaved the foam inside the helmet down to the plastic and told me if I see redness on his forehead or anywhere else that doesn't fade after an hour to just discontinue use.
Of course that happened that very night.
So Little Man was going to be sans helmet for a week. As he now sleeps on both sides, rolling all over the crib, I wasn't too worried about regression. But I was a bit upset that if he had a growth spurt, he'd miss the opportunity to redirect the growth to the back of his head. We were scheduled to pick up DOC Band #2 on Thursday, February 25th.
Then it snowed. And Little Man got a cold. So we rescheduled for Monday, March 1st. Little Man didn't wear a helmet for 11 days and when he got the new one, I was all pumped. I'm thinking, he's only 6.5 months old and has lots of growth ahead of him. I thought some babies don't even get helmets this young and they see great improvement and this is my son's SECOND one. Well, the posterior (some call it "brachy") band he wears has stronger pressure than most of Cranial Technologies' designs. And I took him back the next day for a check. We were on a modified schedule at first but he slept in it by Wednesday night and wore it all day on Thursday (3/4). I took it off for his torticollis stretches and all looked OK. But during his hour off on Thursday night, the red marks didn't fade. So he slept without it.
Friday, March 5th, I called Cranial Technologies in the morning and told them what had happened. They had me put the band back on for a few hours and come by. I'm lucky that the one I go to—in Paramus, NJ—is only 30 miles from my office (a bit further from my home) so it wasn't too bad of a trip. The tech who saw me (not my usual one, though she stopped in) made some adjustments to the holding points and told me to let the redness completely fade before putting it back on. And after that, to be on a 3 hours on/1 hour off schedule through the weekend and to call on Monday. He tolerated it well during the weekend but did not sleep in it.
Monday, I called and we were on a 6 hours on/1 hour off schedule. Tuesday morning (3/9) was his first day wearing it 23/7. He did OK and when I took off the helmet on Wednesday morning to check him, there were red marks again. They faded, but it took around 2 hours. We saw our usual clinician on Wed. and she made another relief on the holding point and an adjustment to the back of the band (to allow for growth). He seemed fine last night. But, again, this morning, he had redness.
I spoke to our clinician and she feels for the next several days, to just give him more off time. If he doesn't adjust to the pressure of this helmet, Cranial Technologies will make a new band. But they're not sure if it's a fit issue or because of something else. Honestly, it is fitting OK but after he sleeps in it and rolls around, it shifts too much. I don't think I'm doing the wrong thing by not insisting they remake it immediately. This could happen again. So he'll have two hour breaks (in the AM and in the PM) instead of one. I don't think that 22/7 should hinder his progress.
So that's the saga. I hope we're on track now. I'll update next week after his appointment.
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