Fixin' A FlatFixin' A FlatFixin' A FlatFixin' A Flat

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The flat and the fix...

I don't think I've ever shown you what Kieran's head looked like pre-helmet therapy.  I've talked about his flat, but I don't think I've shown it to you.

Ready for it?


That's the picture I took of it on the way home from our first consult at Sick Kid's.   Near the top of the back of his head he was so flat that it almost looked indented.

I also haven't told you how the helmet works.  Things in Canada seem to be a lot different than in the U.S.  All these American babes have super cool looking DOC Bands.  Here we have hockey helmets.

The DOC Bands are made to put pressure on different parts of the kiddo's head to force the flat spot to round out.  It's what's called an "active device".  It sounds painful, but apparently it's not.

We have what's called a "passive device".  They're designed so that as your little one's head grows it forms itself to the shape of the helmet.

There seem to be pros and cons with each one.  I had my heart set on a DOC Band because they look less bulky and ugly, but it wasn't an option for us.  Now I'm kind of glad we got the kind of helmet that we have.  It takes way less adjustments (less drives into the big, scary city), it only has to be worn for 18 hours a day instead of 23 (which has been awesome in the heat) and you only need one helmet.  I've heard of some kids going into their 3rd DOC Band and I don't even want to think about the expense of that!  On the other hand, you can start to see changes much faster with the DOC Band than with our hockey helmet.

Either way though, I'm so so happy with the decision we made.  I don't have one single ounce of regret and I know Kieran will be happy that we did this for him.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for writing about this! I noticed K's helmet looked different and I wondered if it was a Canadian vs. US thing.

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  2. That's very interesting, I also wondered why the helmets looked different

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  3. Melissa ... Wow, your awesome ... somehow I have not had the time to 1) keep up my own blog or 2) research as much as you know about the helmets & bands.
    It's funny, the DOC band was our only choice, so of course I love it. But now that I see you only need it on 18 hours a day ... I have to say I'm a little jealous! Evan's doing great w/ the band but I'd love to be able to take it off more often.
    Kieran's head looks so much like Evan's! And by the way he so so adorable!!

    P.S. God help me if we need another band. They're almost $4000 and our insurance doesn't cover it ... funny how there's good and bad to everything... DOC Band vs helmet ... Canada vs. US ... :) BTW one of my best girlfriends in from Toronto and after visiting a couple times I have to to say I love Canada :)

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