postional Plagio: to helmet or not to helmet?

Question

help! my 8 montlh old son was diagnosed with positional plagiocehaly and tort. Mild/moderate case. I am unsure I want to helmet him though. Did anyone choose not to. What about future cognitive delays if left untreated. I can't find any info on this. Aghhhh....

Help!

Answer 1

try this link

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/growth/sleep/positional_plagiocephaly.html

try these sites too
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=positional+plagiocephaly&sp=1&fr2=sp-top&search=positional+plagiocehaly&ei=UTF-8&search_type=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAugucQQK4ZkddpKWMJsW2LIazKIX%2FSIG%3D111gjvvgj%2F%2A-http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&fr=ks-ans&ei=UTF-8&SpellState=n-380481134_q-OYZnwqwo%2FJVwMD6y9V9wpwABAA%40%40

Answer 2

My son was diagnosed with the same and we have had three different helmets for him, however, he wore none of them. You have until the baby's 18 months to correct the problem. The reason why my son didn't wear his was due to the fact that he has medical issues and often has a high fever. I can't keep his head covered when his fever is up, so I just gave up on it. His head corrected itself, mostly. There's still a flat spot, but it's not noticeable when his head's not wet. I don't think he'll need to worry about it - it's not that bad. I mean, I don't think kids are going to tease him about the shape of his head. In your situation, it's hard for me to give an opinion because I haven't seen your little boy. Is his head really misshapen? If it's not, I'd say leave him alone. The helmets are uncomfortable and they need to wear them all the time (except for an hour for bathing) I also know another little boy who wore one and wore it like he was supposed to. His head's still oddly shaped, so I don't know that it worked for him. I doubt that your son will have any cognitive delays based on his skull shape, esp. if it's only mild to moderate. However, the tort might slow things down a bit. Maybe if you can get a physical therapist to help with that? My son has one.... So the short answer to your question is: Yes, my son was diagnosed with the same and yes, I chose not to helmet :) Hope this helps

Here's a link that you might find helpful. It has a lot of different links that all have to do with this topic: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:W4TSPUrzXJAJ:www.plagiocephaly.org/support/links.htm+positional+plagiocephaly+and+tort.&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

Answer 3

Ask your pediatrician for a referral to an early intervention program. They can be very helpful in making those decisions and can also offer physical therapy for the torticallus.

Answer 4

no