Week 6 in the Cranial Remolding Helmet for Plagiocephaly

 Ansel has already worn the cranial remolding helmet for his plagiocephaly for six weeks! We are already seeing drastic improvements. In fact, if it did not improve any more, I think I could be content with it. (Except for his ear placement- more on that later) The back left of his head doesn't feel or look so flat anymore. Looking from above, we already see the parallelogram shape coming back into a circle. Guess it was worth the money!! :)

On Monday this week, Ansel was a little fussy in the morning. Usually we leave the helmet on all day until we clean it in the evening, but I decided to take it off anyway. To my chagrin, he had a "hotspot" as they call it. The skin looked like a bright red side burn and close to blistering. See below.  I decided I wasn't putting it back on until we figured it out. I gave it that day to air out, but when it was still red on Tuesday morning (even though the helmet had been off a whole day) I called the Hangar Clinic and they got him in right away. They shaved out some more of the foam on the left, and we put it back on. By the afternoon the skin just looked dry and a little flaky from whatever reaction it had. They also suggested using cornstarch if it seemed to be rubbing again.

I keep trying to figure out what caused the hot spot. Did he sleep on it and the extra sweat/no air irritate it? Did we not get that part clean enough in the daily wash? Was it too small because of a growth spurt? We still aren't sure, but I'm glad he's not having any more issues with the hot spot.

However, his head does seem dry, somewhat like the cradle cap that he had around a month old. We tried putting Aveeno baby lotion on his head as recommended by the specialist, but his hair is so long it just seemed like a goopy mess. It's kinda hard to rub lotion through hair, ya know? Then we tried to let it "dry out" before the helmet went on, but his hair still had the lotion in it. I don't know, I'm still not sure it was effective anyway. I just feel bad when he reaches up like he wants to scratch his head...poor baby. Tonight I just scrubbed it really good in the bath and I hope that helps. Perhaps it's just the dry winter weather.

His ears worry me too. They are still not aligned. I hope as his head keeps shifting they will move more into place. At least they are even horizontally if you are looking at him from the front. It's really just when you look at him from above that you notice one ear is closer to his eye than another.

Hopefully we only have to wear the helmet another two months or so, at least during the day when we go out. Overall people just ignore it, and those who do say something aren't rude. It's funny, actually, because they either think I'm trying to dress him up like a football player, or they recognize the Captain America logo. But they aren't rude so it doesn't bother me too much. I'm definitely looking forward to when he doesn't have to wear it though!! The whole ordeal is really an issue of me trusting God. And also realizing that maybe I put too much stock in a "normal" appearance... As the Bible says, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart."