Little Baby Flathead: Opinions/Experiences With - or Without - STAR/DOC Band Helmets

In My Humble Opinion
1

Almost five months ago now (criminy, time flies!), I had my son. Like all babies, he’s totally awesome and perfect in every way, but it so happens that he’s got a mild case (or at least, it appears mild to me) of plagiocephaly, or as I call it, flatheaditis. It’s predominately on the right side, and only in the back. His ears and facial features are all well-aligned (and well-cute).

We talked to the baby-vet about it; at his two-month, she noted it and recommended as much time as possible off his back, make sure he was turning his head both directions, etc., which we had already started doing. At his four-month, she asked if it was helping. I said I thought so, although it’s somewhat hard to tell. She said to continue that routine, and if we weren’t seeing improvement by six months, to get an evaluation at the humbly-named STAR Cranial Center of Excellence. (Thank goodness she didn’t refer us to the STAR Head Place of Mediocrity! I’ve got my doubts about them.) They make these helmets called STAR bands, which the kid would wear for three months or so, for 23 hours a day. Apparently, his head then grows to fill the shape of the helmet. There’s another company that makes a similar product, the DOC band.

I’ve seen lots of before-and-after photos of both bands, and they clearly do work, and on heads far more misshapen than my little guy’s. But what I can’t really find are examples of babies who had plagiocephaly/brachycephaly and didn’t get a helmet. I’m trying to figure out whether I can realistically expect this to get better on its own, and if so, how much. The thing is, I’m sure that if we have STAR “evaluate” him, they will obviously recommend a STAR band. These helmets cost a few thousand dollars, so they’re hardly going to say, “Oh, no - he’ll be fine without one.” And the flatness is noticeable. Not freakish, certainly, but… it does need improvement, in my opinion. I don’t want to miss the window of opportunity to correct it, but I also don’t want to pony up a couple grand to “fix” something that would have fixed itself, either.

So - what’s your humble opinion? Did your kid (or you, even) have one of these helmets? Was it worth it? Or if they didn’t have one, did the problem self-correct, or do you wish you’d gotten one? Or maybe you think flat heads are beautiful and I should leave it be. Let’s hear it - and pics are helpful, if possible.

2

No experience. Just want to say cute baby.

3

My son’s head evened out even without a helmet. I am happy to share pics through email, not in public

4

Our boy’s head cured itself. Now he is two and a half and it is one of those topics of concern and conversation that I had forgotten was an issue until you brought it up.

I have to assume that it is almost always self correcting. I don’t see a whole lot of flat headed adults, and I assume they grew up before this device was widely available.

5

<insert tasteless Zork joke here>

6

Oh my god he’s cute. My heart.

I’m no help because I’ve known several babies with wonky skulls who wore the helmet, and none who were diagnosed had parents that chose to forgo the helmet. I have, however, know plenty of (otherwise normal) adults and older children with flat heads, and I’d err on the side of caution here if I were you… I find it really ugly. More noticeable on men of course.

ETA Relevant link

7

That *is *an adorable baby. And thank you for making me laugh with the term “baby-vet.”

I don’t have any direct information on fixing it, but I hear tell that babywearing can at least prevent flat-head. My move would be to wait the prescribed time to see if it gets better, and if not, schedule a grilling session with the ped and ask them about what the risks and benefits are of both choices.

8

The reason that there are fewer flat-headed adults is because those people were infants before it was recommended that infants be placed on their backs to sleep to reduce the chance of SIDS. Flat-headedness is a side effect of babies sleeping on their backs.

9

My niece had a flat head as a baby (caused, in part, by the mother of all cases of post-partum depression in my SIL) and it was never treated.

She now has a rather flat head as a pre-teen and has to wear her hair long otherwise it’s quite obvious.

If you can get the helmet, get the helmet.

10

My daughter’s head was so flat I had comments on it from complete strangers. My doctor told us that it would “fix itself”. My daughter’s head did mostly even out and her face is aligned perfectly. The only time I can notice a little flatness is when her hair is wet. PM me if you’d like to see some before and after pictures.

11

I don’t know about this particular question, but if you’re not sure, maybe a visit to a different pediatrician would be in order, just to get another opinion, one that isn’t connected to any product. Of course, if that one says it will work itself out, you’ll still have to make the decision, but it might be worth it, just to ease your mind, one way or the other.

And yes, that is one cute baby.

12

Perhaps I allow regret avoidance to guide my decisions more than I should, but personally I’d spend the $2,000 even if there was only a 5% chance there would be a better outcome with the helmet than without. I just couldn’t imagine trying to explain to my kid that s/he’s got a flat head because I wanted to save a couple bucks.

13

cute

14

We did the helmet thing with our daughter - she’s now 3. In addition to the flat area, she had issues with neck/shoulder muscle development. So along with the helmet, we were doing some PT with her as well. I don’t recall what the relationship was (if any) between the flat spot and the muscle thing.

Long story short - everything went fine. She has a “perfectly” round head and full range of motion, etc. She was in the helmet for about 6 months I think. Didn’t seem to bother her a bit, it was just a bit of a pain for mom and dad. Knowing what I know now after the fact, I would definitely do it again.

Also, our health insurance covered everything. The helmet is considered a prosthetic device. I would be surprised if, assuming you have health insurance, your’s wouldn’t cover it. Give them a call to find out.

15

So now that the kid is 2.5 years older…how’s the head doing?

16

The f/u will be fun to get. I hope you managed to resist the scam. They prey on that RR attitude. Nearly half of all babies are somewhat flat by 4 months and since most start to roll at that point almost all self-correct pretty dang well by 1 year old.

The humble opinion of the American Academy of Pediatrics on the subject (2011):

They leave open the option of helmets for kids with severe deformities if no substantial improvement has been seen after 2 to 3 month of changes in position.

17

Huh, I totally missed that this got revived. Well, long story short, we did end up getting a helmet, and we’re glad we did.

Long story long: we went to STAR for an initial evaluation, and much to my surprise, they basically said that yes, he clearly had flatness, but it was what they considered borderline, and they didn’t think he necessarily needed a helmet. They would be happy to do it, of course, if we really wanted, but agreed with the doctor that positioning techniques would probably be the most help in his case. I explained that we’d already been doing positioning techniques religiously for a while - over three months at that point - and I was just concerned they weren’t working. So they suggested that we come back in a month, and they would do a second scan and see if there was any progress. They weren’t charging for the scans, so we figured, what the hell, it couldn’t hurt.

So we continued to do the positioning, and my husband thought it might possibly be helping. And when we came back, even the tech who did the scans seemed optimistic. But when she compared the two scans, we discovered that it hadn’t gotten better, and hadn’t even stayed the same, but had actually gotten worse. It wasn’t just that it was flat, it was that it was flat only on one side, and while the round-ish side was indeed more rounded, the flat part wasn’t, so the difference was actually becoming more pronounced. Even then, they weren’t like, “You really need to do this!” They pointed out that he was still borderline, and said it might still improve on its own. On the other hand, he was 6 1/2 months at this point, and if we waited too much longer, his growth rate would decrease and a helmet would become less effective. They offered to do another scan in another month, but ultimately we decided that since we hadn’t seen any natural improvement at this point, we should go ahead with the helmet.

He wore it 23 hours a day for three months, with periodic adjustments (they shaved off areas inside the helmet to allow growth). At the end, his head was still uneven, but much better, and the flat side was finally rounding out. Now, at 3, he still has a little unevenness, but others don’t notice it unless I tell them specifically what to look for. It was kind of a pain at the time, but now, most of the time I completely forget that we did it. Obviously, we can’t say for sure that it wouldn’t have corrected on its own, but we feel it was worth it (especially because he’s a boy and, if he takes after his dad, may not *have *hair to hide his head when he gets older).