Fearless helmet

Fearless

Perhaps it was once a childhood fantasy. At one stage or another one have dreamt of being a super hero, or in my case, being their beautiful fragile lover. We once dream of having something that gives us magical or superpowers and become invincible.

If anyone believes in lucky strike, I have seen it in action with the twins. I have never seen anyone get so out of luck.

If the two boys are racing under the table, Niel will be the one that bumps his head. If Malakai throws his toy across the room and hits a baby on the head, it’s got to be Niel’s head that got hit. If a baby jumps off the nappy changing table, it will be Niel that does it. Niel has fallen off the bed and nose landed on a toy truck that turns his nose bright red for a week by 8 months old. If his Dad accidentally bumps a baby’s head on the car’s door, it just happens to be Niel’s head. If by chance, someone’s elbow hit a baby, it’s Niel that got hit. Guess which baby is the one that manages to crawl into the kitchen and spill garbage on himself? If there are two babies in the uterus, guess which baby is breech and got his head stuck under Mum’s ribs?

Niel.

Nevertheless, Niel is fearless. Exciting things happens to those seeks adventure!
Now his helmet actually makes him even more fearless than ever.

No more hesitation when trying to reach for a toy under the table, Niel will now always win toy wrestling with big twin brother Ethan. If a space is too small for two, Niel would just jump in there, attacking everyone and everything with his protected head. Fearless. That is my Niel.

Cranial molding helmet

Sleeping with Helmet

It has been 3 days since Niel’s cranial-molding-helmet fitting done at the Children Hospital’s Orthotics. The first two days was simply an introductory period where the helmet just needs to be on for two hours and taken off for two hours throughout the day. That first two days went without any dramas. Niel goes about his day and does not seem to notice the new contraption his head.

I was excited, and searched around the internet trying to find ideas on how to “dress up” the helmet. I thought about spray painting it or just draw stars with a permanent marker, but I was worried if the paint would smear at the end and I would regret trying to decorate it. In the end, I think the safest option is to get stickers for it, when I find one.

Niel’s head was wet with sweat; the helmet really does keep the heat in. Niel doesn’t complain, but I feel terrible for wanting him to wear it, the presence of his sweat made it seems uncomfortable.

The Orthotist have advised to take layers of his jackets off during the day, and also reduce the layers of blanket at night when he has his helmet on. He also assured me that soon, Niel’s body will adjust to it and will stop excreting too much sweat from his head. I was wondering how that works, will I be able to fight the winter chills if I am wearing nothing on my body, but sports a massive polar-bear-fleece hat on my head? I am not convinced.

I am unsure on how long this adjustment period is, but based on other mothers’ experience, it may take a few weeks.

After two days of introductory period, the Orthotist examined the red spots on Niel’s scalp caused by the pressure from the helmet. As everything is as it should be, he then prescribed that the helmet is to be worn 23 hours a day.

I take his helmet off for about 10 minutes every hour, to air it out. It is usually soaking with sweat, but by the end of the day, the amount of sweat has greatly reduced. I was glad that perhaps, he’s adjusting really well.

When I put him down for his night time sleep, I have anticipated that we would need to take his helmet off later to wipe dry his head. True enough, two hours later, he woke up crying and I took his helmet off for a few minutes before putting it back on and patting him to sleep again. The helmet is big change to him, so letting him cry it out would be unfair. When he woke up again at midnight, I decided to just keep it off for the rest of the night. Few hours tonight have been an improvement. However, Niel has never been a good sleeper to start with; he would still wake several times even without his helmet. Nevertheless, I still feel bad for wanting him to wear the helmet and go through this.

I hope I am doing this in his best interest. When he goes to school later, his classmates will not tease him for his flat head. Perhaps he will thank me when he is older, because he can then choose any variety of hairstyles, because anything will look good on his nice round head then.

Flat Head

What did you say about my
Big Flat head?

My younger twin boy, Niel, was heads up during pregnancy. His head in the uterus was pressed against my ribs, and was born with a very wide head. I was advised that this will fix itself after time, if he rolls his head to the sides when he sleeps, but I must make sure that he turns equally, so it will not become lopsided as well.

At 4 months old, we noticed that his head shape got worse as his temples start to grow out, side ways, and the back of his head was completely flat. He doesn’t turn his head much when he sleeps, as his head got flatter, he enjoys sleeping on the flat spot more and more. My GP continue to assure us that it will fix itself when he starts rolling, so we waited another couple of months, also trying to keep him off the flat spot as much as we can by wedging and tilting his cot to one side. When he is 8 months old, we finally got an appointment at the Plagiocephaly clinic of the Royal Children Hospital, and Niel was prescribed with a helmet therapy.

I have done my homework and researched about the helmet to prepare myself. I saw photos of children wearing them, what results they got, how it fixed their heads, and so on. We did anticipate that there will be a tough adjustment period when he starts putting it on but we decided to will stick with it hoping we are doing what is best for him. Hopefully when he is older, and his friends at school are not teasing head shape, he will thank us for doing this.

The first appointment to the Orthotist was fun. Niel sat on my lap, both of us wearing a full body apron so we will not plaster cast on our clothes. Next, the Orthotist wrap a piece of clingwrap around the back of his head from ear to ear, and closed around his forehead. This will help to keep his hair clean from the plaster later. A piece of white stocking like material then placed on his head, a big hole was already cut out of it for his face. The Orthotist mark the stocking where Niel’s ears are and where he will want to put pressure points on, etc. Then, he wrapped the stocking with a long piece of gauge already soaked with plaster. After a few minutes the plaster set, and the mould was taken off. The Orthotist will use this negative mold to create a custom fit helmet for Niel.

The room where we did the casting was decorated with posters of cartoon characters and superheroes who have unusual shaped heads or helmets. It was clever and smart, and didn’t look bad at all. When I get to pick a colour and pattern, we settled for a plain light blue colour. I will be able to personalize it later myself (yeah, right!). As we leave the reception after making another appointment the next week, we were completely surprised that the helmet did not cost us a cent.