Day 8 - Helmet

When Connor was 9 months old, he was diagnosed with Plagiocephaly which is a malformation of the head characterized by a persistent flat spot on the back or side of the skull leading to asymmetry of the head. Basically he had a big flat spot on the left side of his head!  They say that this occurs when infants consistently turn their head to one side (torticollis). Connor was also not allowed to be on his belly for 6 weeks after his heart surgery so I don't think that helped the situation either. Connor was given a molding helmet to treat the flattening. The helmet is a light-weight plastic shell with a foam liner that acts as a brace to redirect cranial growth. They cut the foam out on the side of the head that is flat to encourage that side to grow in a sense. Since the head is constantly growing in infants, the helmet has to be worn 23 hours per day. Connor wore his helmet for approximately 3 months and we did see a significant improvement. 

This was Connor's first cookie!

Connor was absoultey adorable in his helmet. It did not seem to bother him at all and he still slept great even with it on. By this point he slept on his belly every night anyway so it really didn't seem to affect his sleep. Connor was just learning to sit on his own during the months he was wearing the helmet which was great. When he fell over and bumped his head it never hurt! I remember that he used to get very excited with his toys and didn't have the best control over his arms and hands so he would hit himself in the head a lot when playing. The helmet was a great defense against these toys.

I remember thinking at the time that he would be wearing the helmet for so long, but when coming up for topics for this blog I almost forgot about that stage. Everything really does go by so fast!

Here is one more picture that I think is super cute. He had to wear this sock on his head when they took the computer generated measurements prior to making his helmet.