About two months ago, Spencer was diagnosed with something called plagiocephaly, otherwise known as a "flat head syndrome." The treatment for a flat head is to wear a cranial helmet for a period of time to help reshape the head. None of this really came as a surprise to us, as we have been wondering if his flat head was severe enough to warrant a helmet. Even so, it was a bit sad when we heard at the consultation that he did indeed need a helmet.
This type of thing is actually fairly common among NICU babies. Since Spencer spent so much extra time in his bed as he grew (rather than in the womb), he developed a flat head. Then, once it got severe enough, it was hard for us to help him correct it, as he also struggled with torticollis.
About a month ago Spencer was fitted for his helmet through a process where they put plaster on his head and let it dry, in order to create a mold. He was actually a pretty good sport about the whole thing.
He has done really well transitioning to wearing it 23 hours a day and is expected to continue to wear it for a few months. Other than it impairing his vision a bit, he doesn't seem to notice he has it on at all. (We secretly have a sigh of relief when he topples over and doesn't feel any pain at all because of the protective nature of the helmet.)
This past week we were able to get his helmet wrapped by a local company that typically wraps vehicles (Revolution Wraps). They have a special program where they offer to design and wrap cranial helmets for free. They did an amazing job and we are so excited about how it turned out. Getting some ideas off Pinterest, we decided to design it with characters from the book Good Night, Good Night Construction Site. We were even able to get rights from the publisher to use the actual pictures from the book.
It has been a really fun process and we are glad our little guy is taking yet another challenge in stride. Carter also loves the helmet and is a very proud big brother to show everyone the design.
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