A boy and his helmet

Grady was in the Doc Band two weeks as of this past Thursday.  We are hoping he will be out of the helmet (Doc Band is to helmet like Kleenex is to tissue...I may switch back and forth between the two words often!) by Christmas.  I thought I would post a little information on how Grady ended up in what will probably be the most expensive hat he will ever wear :)

Grady's doctor noticed neck issues and early flattening at Grady's two month appointment.  We intervened with neck stretches, repositioning and more tummy time at that point.  By four months, things were looking worse and Grady's doctor referred us to Cranial Technologies for further evaluation.  Between pictures, measurements and examination of his head, Grady was found to have plagiocephaly (a flattened head on one side of the head) on the left side of his head. Due to the flattening, he was starting to have some associated facial asymmetry.  Grady's case was caught very early by his doctor and is considered to be a moderate case.  To help protect the flat spot and reshape his head, Grady was recommended to have a Doc Band. We were given an estimate of 6-9 weeks that Grady would be in the band. This was very exciting news as we had thought 6-9 months would be more likely.  Grady is very young and growing quickly so our hope is that the condition can be fixed quickly too.

 Causing the flatness is Grady's torticollis.  Here is information from BabyCenter on torticollis: "Torticollis means "twisted neck," and if a child has this condition, her head will be tilted to one side while the chin is turned to the other side. It's also sometimes called wryneck. While it may look painful, it usually isn't. When a baby is born with the condition, it's called congenital torticollis. About 1 in 250 infants are born with torticollis." Grady's torticollis is causing him to turn his head to the left most of the time which is then causing the flat spot. We do neck stretches with Grady at home (every time we change his diaper, Grady gets a mini therapy session) and Grady goes to the chiropractor weekly.  In order for the head to stay round after the helmet comes off, the neck needs to make improvement too. 

The Doc Band during Halloween week

You may be wondering why it matters if Grady has a flat head...don't worry, we wondered too!  What could happen is that his face could start to look distorted, he could have more frequent ear infections from ears being out of line, and could develop TMJ and other jaw problems from the jaw being out of line and while they don't have a lot of research on how the brain is effected it still makes me nervous. I don't like to mess with the brain!

 

Grady has made good progress in the first two weeks.  Last week, during the visit, Grady's head looked great and was on the right track.  It was very rewarding to see progress in so little time and let's hope that we are a quarter of the way through the treatment!