About four weeks ago, we took Kellyn to get initially evaluated to see if she needed a cranial remolding orthosis. The cranial remolding orthosis is basically a helmet for children who have plagiocephaly. It helps to reshape the head into a more symmetrical shape. At that appointment, Kellyn's measurements fell within the normal range. However, she still had a flat spot on side of her head while the other side jutted out a bit more. The cranial remolding specialist did not recommend a helmet. She suggested lots of tummy time so that the head would likely fill in on its own.
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| This is the stockinette that goes over the head. |
So now, about four weeks after this initial appointment, I noticed that Kellyn still had a flat spot on one side of her head with the spot that jutted out slightly on the other. With all the tummy time we had been doing, I had hoped that the back of her head would have been completely normal by now. At almost eight months of age, she was nearing the end of the critical window of time for best possible results with a helmet. I was starting to wonder if maybe we should just request for Kellyn to be in a helmet to be on the safe side. I panicked a little bit and contacted the cranial remolding specialist who did our initial evaluation. After answering my questions, she offered us the opportunity to bring Kellyn back in to do another scan. She would then take the first image of Kellyn's head from four weeks ago and overlay it on top of newest scan to see if any changes in head symmetry occurred. I thought this was a great idea and we went ahead and scheduled the follow-up appointment.
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| Kellyn having her head shape scanned |
At the appointment, the cranial remolding specialist compared the two scans for us. She showed us how Kellyn's head symmetry had actually improved over the past four weeks. On the scan, she showed us how Kellyn's flatter side of her head had filled out a little more than the side that jutted out a bit more. This was comforting to see. The specialist said that Kellyn's head shape was very symmetrical and her numbers looked great. At this point, I felt very confident that Kellyn did not need a helmet and that her plagiocephaly was naturally improving on its own. If you are interested in seeing how our initial helmet evaluation went, check out this
previous post.
