Like many C-section babies, Banner was born with the most beautiful, perfectly shaped, round head, and I loved it! But, a few weeks after that, I started worrying about it. Okay, I was worried about everything, but I was genuinely concerned about what was going on with his head. I kept noticing all these little bumps and odd curves to it. When I asked our pediatrician about a few things, he agreed with my brother (an OB/GYN) who said it's all normal, especially for a baby who was head-down throughout the pregnancy. Well, a few more weeks went by, and we had our 2-month check-up. At that appointment, I pointed out that Banner's head shape was off. From a bird's-eye-view, you could see that the back of Banner's head was flatter on the right than the left. Sam and I did everything we could to reposition him to help with this, but his head stayed flat. (You can read more about this in the 2-month post.)
Fast-forward to Banner's 4-month check up, and Sam and I were still concerned about Banner's head. I didn't notice a change of any kind during those two months, and if anything, the whole back of his head just looked really flat. Our doctor agreed, so he prescribed a visit to Cranial Technologies, where we could get a consult about whether a helmet would benefit Banner. (They call their "helmets" DOC bands. They really don't cover the entire head like a bicycle helmet would. A DOC band allows the head to grow where it needs to. The open spaces allow head growth, and weekly visits with the orthotist allow frequent checks and redirecting of growth when they hollow out more of the band. Every band is unique to the child's needs.) Yes, this is what I worked so hard to avoid since Banner was only a few weeks old, and here we were being told we may need to put a helmet on our sweet boy's head. We had him evaluated for his plagiocephaly, a scary word no mother wants to hear, but it basically means oblique head, where one side of the head seems to be pushed forward, therefore causing misalignment of ears and/or facial asymmetry. In Banner's case, we really didn't notice anything with his forehead or face or ears, it was really just the back of his head. Here are some pictures that we got as part of his evaluation:
At the four-month check-up, we were told that Banner would benefit from the helmet. He would have to wear it 6-8 weeks for 23 hours a day, with the one hour off so he could bathe, and I could also clean the DOC Band. Because I wanted a second opinion, which Cranial Tech supported, we decided to wait. I quickly made an appointment with a craniofacial surgeon in our area who could see us the following week. The surgeon arranged for us to have X-Rays prior to our appointment with him so that he could see what was going on inside Banner's head. I'll spare you the details about our obnoxiously long wait at the hospital radiology center with our four-month old, but after a very long wait, Banner did GREAT with these X-Rays. Sam was with Banner for this round of X-Rays (I had been the one to have to hold him down at his 2-month check-up), so I got to sit with the technician and watch the images come up.
The surgeon confirmed that Banner's head was fine inside. He said Banner did not have craniosynostosis, which is where the sutures of the infant's skull fuse too early and can result an abnormal head shape. We had to make sure of this before deciding what to do about the helmet, because "helmeting" a child with craniosynostosis can make matters much worse! In addition to this great news, we also learned that this particular doctor recommended waiting until the child is 6-months old before helmeting. He said sometimes the head shape can correct on its own when the baby is sitting up more, crawling around more, and generally off the back of the head. So, we left his office with a new timeline. We decided to wait until Banner was 6 months before doing anything.
Of course, during that time, I was still freaking out daily. The longer you wait to helmet, the longer the child will have to be in the helmet, so every day that I waited meant more time for Banner to be uncomfortable in a helmet later on. This did not sit well with me, and I was just trying so hard to wait 2 months! TWO MONTHS - a really long time to wait for another answer that could tell us we SHOULD have done something EARLIER! I felt like every passing day was a missed opportunity.
But, lo and behold, time did pass, and it was finally time to get another consult at Cranail Tech right before Banner's 6-month check-up with the pediatrician. Here are the pictures from that evaluatoin:
And, just to help you compare... here's side by side changes of his head at 4 months (left) and 6 months (right):
My mom was the one to take him this time, and she called me at work to give me the scoop. Basically, the orthotist handling our case was overwhelmingly surprised at all the progress Banner had made. She said we (Sam and I) had been doing a great job with the exercises she had taught us at the 4-month evaluation. (HA! We couldn't stand doing them and never did really because Banner screamed through them. The manipulations were for kids with torticollis - yes, another word no mother wants to hear her baby has! Torticollis is when the baby has a stiff neck and cannot manipulate the neck to turn different directions or hold the head up properly. Banner did not have this... he could turn any direction he wanted, and he had no problem moving his neck, so we decided the exercises were not worth the aggravation.) But, anyway, she applauded our valiant efforts, so we accepted those kudos! :) What we DID do a great job of was being aware of the time he was spending in the bouncer, the swing, the car seat, etc. And, by 6 months, Banner was sleeping on his side and his belly, so he was off the back of his head for a long period of time. (That's part of the problem... Banner slept through the night from a very early age... 8-10 hours by the time he was 2 months old. And, the directives from the AAP say to have babies sleep on their backs, so he was on the back of his head for so many hours at a time at a very early age, and he tended to turn his head to the right no matter what we did to discourage that!) 
So, back to the orthotist.... she told Mom that while she supported the idea that a helmet would make Banner's head better, she felt that it was really our choice and nothing we HAD to do. She said it would be cosmetic, not functional as we were once told at 4-months (that his head shape at that time would lead to jaw problems and facial asymmetry). Now that he was older, he would have to wear it 10-12 weeks for 23 hours a day. So, we consulted with our doctor, and he agreed it was a tough call. Banner's plagiocephaly was SO mild. Sam and I had said that if Banner were a girl, we probably wouldn't worry about it because her hair would cover any misshaped areas. Our doctor disagreed by saying, "If he were a girl, I'd definitely do it. A boy can get away with looking like a doofus." A doofus?? I don't want my baby looking like a doofus ever! EVER! And, with short hair, his misshaped head would stand out worse, so with that comment, I was back on a rampage to helmet him, especially because the doctor said at this point, his head would not get any better. Yet, we had heard that before at 4 months from the Cranial Tech therapists, so I was not convinced that it couldn't correct more on its own now.
To helmet or not to helmet, that was the question! Of every minute of my day! I'd ask people close to me what they thought. I remember going to a friend of mine at work and asking her opinion! We talked about it at play dates. I questioned my family about it every chance I could. Sam and I argued about it almost daily...he had adamantly decided there was no reason to spend over $3,000 on the DOC Band if it was cosmetic, but I adamantly worried that Banner would never forgive us if he lived his whole life with a misshaped head! I wanted so badly to just ask Banner what he wanted! I wished I could know his thoughts on the matter... I could hear him saying, "Mommy, please don't make me wear that thing! It'll be hard to sleep in. I won't be comfortable. My head will sweat. People will stare at me!" Then, I could hear him saying, "Please make my head perfect. Please don't make it easy for kids to pick on me in school. Give me that helmet so I won't look like a fool who can't get a date because I look like a freakin' doofus!"
Well, I decided to try not to let it bother me. HA! Well, I TRIED! But, I'd reevaluate his head at every bath, when I could wet his hair and eliminate the confusion that his wavy hair was causing. I still do. See, what ended up happening was, there were more days when I thought his head was fine than when I thought it was lopsided or flat, so I kept putting my decision off - still very much stressing out over this decision since once Banner turned a year old it was pretty much a done deal. (There's a small window of opportunity when the head is really malleable, so like I said earlier, with each passing day, we were losing that opportunity to correct Banner's head.) Well, here's what his head looks like now, at 9 months... (not the most professional shots, but certainly, you get the "picture!"):
Given these photos and the way his head was correcting already, I'm pretty sure we made the right decision by deciding NOT to DOC Band him. I certainly hope my kid doesn't look like a doofus, or at least that he doesn't look like a doofus because of something I failed to act on that could have made him undoofus-like. He's got a big head, just like his Daddy. His current head measurement puts him in the 75th percentile for head size, and that's just fine with me, as long as it's a round, nondoofus head! I'm always going to worry about this decision and whether it was the right thing - at least until I see his head when he's 15 or so with a buzz cut or something similar... only then will I know if we did the right thing. But, no matter what, I love that beautiful head - perfectly symmetrical or not - and I can't wait to learn more about what's happening INSIDE that head! I can't wait for him to talk to me, and maybe one day, he'll tell me what he would have wanted me to do. I can only hope he would agree with our decision because he SO doesn't look like a doofus!
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