Farewell, Helmet!

Abe's helmetLast week was Abe’s final helmet appointment, and today I will be throwing his helmet out! (I had to take one last picture of it, haha!) We are so thankful we went the route of getting Abe a helmet, and the time flew past faster than I thought it could. He ended up wearing it for just a little over 3 months, and average therapy is 3-6 months. Way to go, Abe, in having some big growth spurts!

In fact, the most growth he had was in the first 5 days!! We immediately started seeing change, and had to get him evaluated so quickly after he began because he developed a nasty skin infection on his scalp. His head was measured during that visit, and in those 5 days, his flat spot went from 14mm asymmetrical down to 10mm asymmetrical! The goal with a helmet is to get the flat spot down to 5mm asymmetrical, so we were ecstatic by this great news! Here is a “before” pic and one after these first 5 days of him wearing the helmet:

abeCrazy, huh?! I remember I kept thinking his head looked like an entirely different baby’s head! I can now hardly even remember his flat spot being that dramatic, whew! The doctors couldn’t provide us with an exact reason for why he got such a severe flat spot; it is much more common in twins, so it could be because he didn’t have as much room to move in my belly so he preferred to lay on the side his neck was turned before birth. Or it could simply have been because he was a sound sleeper – once he fell asleep, he didn’t move! And once a bit of a flat spot developed, his head naturally rested in that position. It’s also interesting how this is becoming so much more common due to the “back to sleep”campaign. As new parents, it seemed so scary to think of our baby suffocating due to being laid on his tummy to sleep…but it’s crazy to think that if we had to start with, he wouldn’t have developed this problem. But…that wasn’t an option for us anyway because of his terrible acid reflux!

Anyway, here are his before and after scans. I feel like I’m revealing a dramatic weight loss or something, ha! It is quite the transformation! Don’t pay attention to the part on the after scan (the bottom one) below his ear – he moved during the scan so it got all strange-looking. He doesn’t really have a funny looking lump on his neck :)

Abe's helmet for blogFor those who may be interested in the numbers…his asymmetry started off at 14mm and ended at 3mm. Meaning, his flat spot is no longer noticeable! Also, his cephalic index (the ratio between width and length of the head) went from 94% to 89%.

Helmets are a truly remarkable technology, and we are thankful Abe got the help he needed so early on!

Welcome! I'm so thrilled you stopped by. Get comfy and take a look around at some of my recent shoots, and drop me a message to connect more!

View the Galleries

tel 913-209-8842Kansas City
tel 913-209-8842Kansas City