Doc Band

"What?! You went over my helmet?!" - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)

With all the helmet talk today, I can't help but think of Rick Moranis.

Anyway, yes. The little guy had a consultation today to see whether or not he will need a helmet (called a Doc-Band) to correct his crooked little adorable head. It's called Plagiocephaly. They did a photo study and then had a therapist analyze him. As you can see in the pictures below, the left side of his head has a little bulge, while the right side is rather flat.

Click photo for company website and more info on the condition

It is causing a slight misalignment of the ears, and in the future could cause some jaw or vision problems. His case is considered Moderate - not mild, but definitely not severe. The Doc-Band is not a total necessity. The therapist gave us the pros and cons and now we have to decide what we want to do. We are going to see if insurance will cover any part of it (the helmets run over $2000 typically), but right now we are thinking it would be beneficial, just to avoid any future problems.

The good thing at this stage of the game is, he is young and will most likely only need to wear it for 2-3 months. So by the time he's 9 months old, he'd be done with it. Also, they don't think it will get much worse. As long as I keep repositioning him and continuing tummy time, there won't be a huge change. The tough part is his appointments would be every single week. It's only about a 25 minute drive (traffic-free) but its definitely a commitment. And with his upcoming surgery, we'd have to wait until he's out of the hospital and healthy enough to do that. We also didn't want to make a big deal out of it if it was purely for cosmetic reasons, but I think there's enough evidence to support the fact that there could be other repercussions. So we will proceed in due time, after some more discussion and weighing the pros and cons.

Oh, little bugger with all those chins!