Round it out

Logan had his appointment at Hanger Orthotics for his head measurements to see if he will need a cranial band (helmet) to correct the flat spot on the left side of his head. While in the waiting room Logan was enthralled with the fish tank, I stood him up on the chair and he just cooed at the fish and hit the tank (no wonder Nemo was afraid of going home with a child!). We were called back and he got measurements taken of his head looking to see if it was asymmetrical. They measured to see if he has Plagiocephaly (characterized by an asymmetrical head shape, a 'parallelogram' shape) the normal difference between the right and left cranial vaults is 3 mm, Logan has a difference of 12 mm (!) which she said is moderate in severity. Next they measured for Brachycephaly (a head shape which is flattened across the entire back of the head with a very prominent forehead) the normal percentage of difference between the cranial width and length is 80-85% now that children sleep on their backs, Logan's was 98% (!) again this is moderate in severity. The left side of Logan's face- jaw, ear, eye socket is slightly pushed forward which without treatment could result in difficulties later in life with chronic ear infections, speech problems, eye problems, braces (ha he will need those either way!) etc. So pending the approval of insurance and the pediatrician, Logan is obviously a good candidate for getting a cranial band to help even out his head as he grows. If insurance covers this we will only have to pay about $250 if not we pay what the insurance would have $1025 (they usually cost $2000 plus), I am guessing our insurance will cover it, but either way, he will be getting it if the doctors approve. Average amount of time children wear the helmets are 4 months. They wear them 23 hours a day and she warned me they will smell haha. But on the plus side there are lots of designs and colors to choose from she said or we can paint/design our own haha, oh Logan we are going to pimp this helmet out for you! So I am pretty confident in about a month that Logan will be fitted for a helmet. I am glad he will be finally getting his head into shape, we have noticed this for at least 3 months now and were waiting to see if more time off his head would correct itself, and there is still time for that, but I am all for the helmet. Especially because this will be coming around the time he will be learning to crawl and walk and we won't have to worry too much about hitting the noggin on things haha, Dom says he will be a little daredevil because of this ;)

Here is a picture from our paperwork that shows the asymmetrical head shapes: top picture is plagiocephaly, bottom is brachycephaly (funny when you see these, if you have seen Logan's head, these pictures look like his!)

in case you never noticed, just didn't say anything or were blinded by his cuteness here is what Logan's head currently looks like:

the flat spot, hard to photograph but you can see it in person!


Now taking helmet design ideas! And things we can say when people ask why we have a helmet on our child...I am thinking "so the aliens don't abduct him and steal his secrets again", "to protect him from the impending zombie apocalypse", "to keep him from reading our thoughts" etc. :)