Hellobee Boards

We got one for my son when he was about that age (8/9 months). Our insurance did not cover it - it was about $2500 out of pocket. I am really glad we did it. My only regret is we didn't do it sooner because I can still *kind of* see the remaining issues w/his head, but he's 2.5 now with a ton of hair and you would NEVER know now. But I think without the helmet, it would still have been very noticeable now even with hair.

What pushed us into doing it was that you have such a small window to correct it - once they get too old, that's it. I figured it was worth it, so I would definitely vote in favor of it. We could really tell a difference.

It WAS kind of a hassle to deal with, but not unmanageable. The worst was when he first got it, it made his head SO SWEATY. I felt horrible We live in Florida and he got it in May, so it was hot. We just kept him inside with the AC blasting and the first week or two, would take it off frequently to dry off his head, cool off his head, dry off the helmet, and put it back on. The company told us his body would adjust and he totally did - he stopped sweating like that fairly quickly. I think he wore his for about 2 months.

We had my daughter evaluated for a helmet around 8 months old, I think. She developed plagiocephaly pretty early on due to torticollis in her neck and keeping her head turned to one side. We did physical therapy to help with her neck, but the flat spot was already there, on the back right side of her head.

When we had her evaluated, they said her case was borderline (even though I thought it was pretty obvious to an untrained eye). They weren't sure it was severe enough for our insurance to cover it. The technician said that she wouldn't personally pursue a helmet in our case but that if we did want to, she could understand it. My husband felt pretty strongly about not moving forward with the helmet, and I was more on the fence about it. Ultimately we decided not not to.

My daughter is now almost 2.5. Her head still isn't perfectly round in the back. However, I'm probably the only person who notices, and sometimes I do worry/feel guilty that we didn't fix her issue soon enough to give her a more rounded head. Now that her hair has grown in, it's really only noticable in the bath when I rinse her hair or slightly noticable when I put her hair in pigtails because it's harder to get them even. I don't think anyone but me pays much attention though.

@caitcat: DS has a bit of a flat head, his is wider at the ears so I believe thats called something else. He had really thick curly hair so we didnt really notice it until we cut his hair after he was a year old. Its does seem that its changing with time so I'm glad we didnt do a helmet or anything

@mrsmacslp I totally agree and I am so glad we did it for my son. I knew there was a chance it might start looking better on its own as he got older, but there was also a good chance it wasn't going to change and I did not want him to get made fun of or have any issues in the future, and this was our only chance to treat it.