At around 7 weeks we noticed that the twins had slightly flat heads. At their 8 week well visit their pediatrician noticed it as well but didn’t seem concerned; she told us that they each needed to look left a little bit more while sitting in their rock-n-plays, swings, etc.

At their 4-month well visit appointment their heads had grown significantly flatter. It was less obvious with Mr. Hop because he has a lot of hair, but it was very apparent with Miss Hop. At that appointment our pediatrician referred us to a place called Cranial Technologies to have the flatness evaluated.

The subsequent appointment (during which they take measurements and a 360-degree image of their heads) confirmed what we’d feared: their heads were significantly flat in the back and were too wide. And while we were assured that this flatness and asymmetry would not cause any developmental issues, it could cause one eye/eyebrow/ear to be higher than the other (facial asymmetry) and their flat heads could be very noticeable with certain hairstyles.

The primary way to address flat heads in infants is through a special helmet. Because the helmets from Cranial Technologies, called Doc Bands, run around $3,700/helmet, we knew we would not be able to move forward with these without help from insurance. We also weren’t certain if we wanted to move forward with helmets. At the very least, we didn’t want to make a rash decision.

While we were waiting to find out what our insurance company would (or would not) cover we did our due diligence: scoured every website and blog we could find for personal experiences with the helmets, talked it through with family and friends, and followed up with our pediatrician to hear her thoughts after she saw their diagnoses.

The week during which we waited to hear back from insurance was incredibly nerve wracking, partly because I knew whatever insurance decided was ultimately making the decision for us one way or the other. I also struggled with whether or not their heads would just naturally round out more without the help of helmets, as they both have started sleeping on their tummies at night and naptime.

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After a week we received the news that our insurance company would cover the about 90% of the cost of the helmets for both babies. This left us with a cost of $375 per helmet. Still a bit uncertain about it all, we decided to go through with it. We took the babies back to Cranial Technologies for measurements and one week later their helmets were ready.

The first day they wore their helmets for 3-4 hours. We were instructed to see if there was any significant redness or irritation, especially any that didn’t go away after an hour after removing the helmet.

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Their first day in their helmets – happy babies!

As the twins were doing fine, we were able to up their wear time the second day to 23 hours with a 1-hour break for bath time and cleaning the helmets. This is how long they will wear the helmets for the full 8 weeks 23 hours on and 1 hour off.

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Decorated their helmets with decals from Sticky Culture on Etsy!

We are now 1 week into the Doc Band helmets for Mr. and Miss Hop. While I will definitely provide an update when we’re completely done with them, at this initial stage I have some positives and negatives to share.

Positives:

  • The twins have adapted amazingly in them – from the first day they have slept great while wearing them and they don’t really acknowledge that they’re wearing them.
  • We won’t have to wonder “what if” if we opted not to move forward with the helmets. And, of course, I acknowledge that we are incredibly lucky our insurance company covered them without making us jump through any hoops.
  • For us we are fortunate they will be done with the helmets by mid-June, just before it really heats up here in Chicago. I would be nervous about them if we were just starting them in July or August.

Negatives:

  • They cause the babies to be very warm, especially for Mr. Hop who has a lot of hair. Even though it is still quite cool on most days the babies sleep in short sleeved onesies and light sleep sacks. They still end up being very warm!
  • There are frequent appointments associated with the helmets. Depending on your child’s age and other factors they may need to go every single week to have the helmet shaved down to adjust for their growing head! For us we will find out during the second week’s appointment if we need to go weekly or every other week. As the office isn’t open on weekends I don’t know how we’d keep up with these appointments if Mr. H didn’t work from home!
  • The helmets need to be cleaned every day with rubbing alcohol (during the 1-hour break) which isn’t necessarily hard but is one more thing to add into our routine with caring for the twins.

Over the next 7 weeks we will hopefully see continual improvement in the shape of their heads. So often I look back and think of all of the things we could or should have been doing in order to prevent this. But I know that living in the past will do me no good; we’ve done our best managing a toddler and twins! All three are happy and healthy and in a few short weeks we’ll be putting their helmets on for the last time.

Did your LO need to wear a helmet? What your overall experience positive or negative?