I am officially the mom of a "helmet baby". On Tuesday, Drew got his helmet to correct his
plagiocephaly. I wasn't too concerned about how he'd react to it. He's been great when it comes to things like life jackets, so I hoped this would be similar. He's doing awesome with the helmet - I'm not sure he even realizes he's wearing it. :)
The wear and care instructions are a little intimidating. He gradually increases his wearing time over the first five days, working up to wearing it 22 hours a day. He can also have it off to do his physical therapy exercises, if it's super hot out, if he's swimming, if we're on a long car ride, etc. Every morning, we will put it in front of a fan for 15 minutes, put the blowdryer on it for a couple minutes, back to the fan, back to the blowdryer, back to the fan. This is to help it dry after being on his sweaty head all night. Every night we wipe it down with 91% rubbing alcohol, let it dry, scrub it with a sudsy washcloth, let it dry. If we don't do this, it will start to smell funky. Even if we do all of this, it still might smell funky. Fingers crossed this is not the case.
Yesterday we had our first public outing with the helmet on and it went really well. No one made any bizarre comments. Granted, we were having lunch with my dad at his office so the people who stopped to talk with us were his co-workers and probably knew better than to say something ridiculous. I'm trying to come up with something clever to say to the people who say weird/inappropriate things to us about it... Any suggestions?
All in all, this helmet business isn't really all that bad. (At least on day 2. Ask me again on day 60. We'll see...). But in all seriousness, if this is the worst thing we have to deal with with him, I feel blessed. Things could be much, much worse. Perspective. (Seems to be a common theme these days.)
The wear and care instructions are a little intimidating. He gradually increases his wearing time over the first five days, working up to wearing it 22 hours a day. He can also have it off to do his physical therapy exercises, if it's super hot out, if he's swimming, if we're on a long car ride, etc. Every morning, we will put it in front of a fan for 15 minutes, put the blowdryer on it for a couple minutes, back to the fan, back to the blowdryer, back to the fan. This is to help it dry after being on his sweaty head all night. Every night we wipe it down with 91% rubbing alcohol, let it dry, scrub it with a sudsy washcloth, let it dry. If we don't do this, it will start to smell funky. Even if we do all of this, it still might smell funky. Fingers crossed this is not the case.
Yesterday we had our first public outing with the helmet on and it went really well. No one made any bizarre comments. Granted, we were having lunch with my dad at his office so the people who stopped to talk with us were his co-workers and probably knew better than to say something ridiculous. I'm trying to come up with something clever to say to the people who say weird/inappropriate things to us about it... Any suggestions?
All in all, this helmet business isn't really all that bad. (At least on day 2. Ask me again on day 60. We'll see...). But in all seriousness, if this is the worst thing we have to deal with with him, I feel blessed. Things could be much, much worse. Perspective. (Seems to be a common theme these days.)
just tell people your baby gets to wear it 'cause he's cool :)
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