Showing posts with label StarBand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label StarBand. Show all posts

Saturday, February 9, 2013

One week down

Silas has been in his cranial cap for over a week now and seems to be adjusting to wearing it. We have had a couple hicups.
The morning that he wore it to daycare made me laugh. As soon as I sat him down to talk to the teacher in his room, another kid crawled over to him and started to play with the helmet. Guess its something new. At times I catch Silas reaching his arms up and playing with the velcro strap.

Earlier this week daycare called because Silas had a 101.6 fever.  Since he had the helmet on, they couldn't tell that he had a fever when they were holding him.  His face doesn't touch you when you're holding him.  It wasn't until they changed him that they realized he was warm.  Once they called me to let me know that I needed to come pick him up, they took the helmet off. 

By the time I got him into the doctor he hadn't been wearing the helmet for a couple hours.  His temperature was back down to 98. It seemed that the helmet was radiating his heat back and made his mild fever warmer.

He was doing really well sleeping with the helmet on, but the last couple nights he would get up more than every two hours and then would cry when I tried to put him back to sleep.  Silas has been a great baby up to this point and never really cries. I don't want to blame his fussiness on the helmet entirely because he is teething as well.  It could be one of those two things.  Since he was born, he has been a great sleeper.  We decided to try taking the helmet off and he slept great. We don't want to get in the habit of taking it off when he cries. As soon as the helmet came off he was happy and smiling. I hope its him teething that's making him unhappy and not the helmet.  This could be a long couple of months....

I imagine that the helmet is uncomfortable like when we all had braces.  It hurt for awhile after getting them adjusting, you'd take some Advil, and then be fine. I'm not really sure what I can do to help with the discomfort except hold him. I'm sure it does hurt if his head is pressing against one part already and shifting the plates around.  Like any mother, I don't like when my baby is in pain. 

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Fixing His Melon

Silas received his helmet (cranial cap) today.  He did better than expected - much better than he did when he got the plaster mold done of his head. He fussed a little bit, but that was because he wanted a bottle.  The folks at Rebound are so nice and very knowledgeable. After our appointment today, I am very happy with our decision to go with them for Silas' helmet.

Silas with his helmet
Not knowing how people will react to Silas wearing a helmet is a little nerve racking.  Will they stare or point, or will people be supportive?!?!  I remember seeing kids wearing helmets before, but I didn't know what it was for and thought they had some disorder or had epilepsy.  Everyone keeps telling me that they know someone that had their kid in a helmet, but I have yet to find someone that has experienced this themselves.

Josh and I made the decision to correct his head because we knew that this is the perfect time to do it since the plates in his head are still pliable.  Silas will wear the helmet for at least two months, but it will probably be between 3 and 4 months.  It will depend on how quickly his head grows and how fast everything rounds out. When he is done with this whole process, he'll have a perfect head - even though I think he looks pretty good right now but that's b/c I'm his mom. :)  He won't remember any of this and he'll thank us (well maybe) for this someday.  At least I know that Josh and I are making the right decision. 

Silas will start out wearing the helmet for just a couple hours a day.  In a few days he'll be wearing it for 23 hours a day.

Interesting articles that helped me:
StarBand Helmets
StarBand Video
CranioCap® FAQs