Our Little Helmet Head

We had Milo's specialist appointment today to check on his head "tilt." We had brought it up with our pediatrician a few weeks ago because he will often rest his chin toward his left shoulder rather than looking straight ahead. Well, we weren't imagining it... He has a tight muscle on his right side that makes him favor his left - he lays his head to the left more often than not, he looks to the left more frequently, etc. This condition is known as Torticollis and it means that his right side is weaker than his left. We now have some exercises and stretches that will help him build strength on his right side.

Another side effect of his favoring the left is that the left side of his head is a little flatter than his right. The back of his head is also a little flatter than we would like due to his intense and ongoing dislike of tummy time. The abnormal shape of his head is known as Plagiocephaly. I say "little flatter" in both cases because he does not have an extreme case of Plagiocephaly (thank goodness!) - it is definitely noticeable though. The specialist basically said that it was our decision as to whether or not we treat him with a band (aka baby helmet). The website link of the company that explains the process and has before / after pictures is http://www.cranialtech.com/.

Of course we don't want to do this but we really don't want to look back later and wish we had done it and not be able to at that point. How can we not do everything we can for him? What would happen one day when he wants to cut all those sweet curls off? So... before long our sweet Milo will be our sweet little helmet head. The good thing is the doctor expects that he will only have to wear the band for about 2 1/2 months, really just a blink of the eye for the benefit he will get. Now we just have to decide how to decorate it. I see soccer balls in our future...