For those of you with a child just prescribed with a helmet therapy and stumble upon this blog wanting to know how the custom made helmet is made, I’ll try my best to describe our meeting with the Orthotist. I suppose different Orthotist practice will have different procedure in place, but this is how they did it with Niel (was 7 months old then) at the Children’s Hospital.First, both Niel and myself was given a white scrubs apron to wear and protect our clothes, then I was instructed to so sit on a stool with Niel on my lap facing forward. His head, from the back of his neck to his forehead, was then wrapped with a cling wrap so the plaster wouldn’t get stuck on his hair later. Next, a gauge material soaked in the molding plaster is wrapped around his head over the clingwrap. The Orthotist has pre-cut the gauge so that the front part would just sit on his eyebrows, while his ears and the top part of his neck and the back of his head is all enclosed within the plastered gauge. We waited a few minutes for the plaster to set, while Niel is distracted with an activity toy in my hands. Once this is set, the Orthotist carefully mark the plaster where Niel’s ears are placed and other markings to guide him which part of the head needs correcting. This whole procedure didn’t take more than 15 minutes.
This plaster will be used to make a “dummy head” of Niel, and the fiber sheet will be molded around it to make the helmet. We are also given choices to personalize the helmet from a selection of colours and patterns. I chose plain light blue for Niel.
A week later, the helmet was done and ready for our first fitting. It is lined with foam on the inside to protect the skin from the plastic. The helmet opens at the side and held together using Velcro. Niel’s head was flat at the back, so the back part of the helmet didn’t touch his head. The helmet doesn’t alter his current head shape, but made space for where he should grow into. This is something that he is expected to wear 23 hours daily until 6 weeks after he started walking. Why six weeks after he started walking? The Orthotist explained that he will go into a rapid growth spurt at that time, so we would definitely like to capture that head growth with the helmet.
Little did we know that today, at 16 months old, Niel hasn’t quite start walking yet… more on this later.
