Helmet Head:)

So many of you already know that Isla has to wear a DOC band for the next couple months due to a flat spot on the back of her head. I thought I would do a post about it and answer some of the most common questions about it. Lots of people may already know about them and may even know other kids that have had to wear one! Turns out they are pretty common but I had never seen one (or at least noticed one) before .

First of all this is not anything serious at all! I had a little girl in my ward come up to me one Sunday and say (in a very concerned voice) "sister Murray... What's wrong with Isla? Is she going to be okay?" I quickly told her that she was totally fine she just had to wear the helmet due to a flat spot on the back of her head. 

The helmet is purely for cosmetic reasons and the average time babies have to wear them is about four months or so. I don't think Isla will have to wear hers that long since we got it on her pretty early. Her pediatrician told me that babies heads grow the fastest up until about six months of age and we chose to get her the helmet a little before five so she has that extra month of fast growing! The faster the head grows the shorter she has to wear the helmet.

I was initially worried that the helmet would bother her or hurt her but to my surprise it doesn't even seem to phase her at all! She barely notices the thing. The only annoying thing about the helmet is how sweaty her head will get in it sometimes! She wears the helmet 23 hours a day. We only take it off every evening to clean and dry it and to give Isla a bath. Other than the sweat thing we really feel lucky, this thing isn't even a problem at all! In fact... I think she looks pretty cute in it:)

The whole reason she got a flat spot on her head in the first place was for a few reasons. During labor I was pushing for over 3 hours and that put a lot of pressure on her very mold-able head. She also had torticollis which just means she favored one side over the other. She would only look one way, sleep on one side and we had to stretch out her neck muscles by doing some little physical therapy exercises and tummy time. Luckily the torticollis is gone but because she was always favoring one side her flat spot didn't go away on it's own like it should have.

Most babies don't get the helmet on until they are about seven months or older but our pediatrician recommended getting it sooner because he was pretty sure at four months old hers was bad enough it would not correct itself. I am glad that we got it I can already tell it is making a big difference and it's only been a month! We hope that her head can continue growing fast and so she won't have to wear it that long.

Also, just FYI. The helmet doesn't actually put any pressure on her head. It was custom made for her and it only touches the part of the head that doesn't need to grow and leaves a gap in the area that it does. So her head will just naturally fill in that gap as it grows. Genius! 

This turned out to be a really long post but hopefully it answered some questions if anyone had any:) and I can look back on this post one day if I need to remember how to maybe avoid it with future children!

They are pretty cool hats! Isla's cousin Miles wants one in his size:)