Twin Tuesdays - Jack's Helmet Story

When Jack and Nellie were born, we noticed almost immediately that Jack always turned his head to the right and tilted his head to the left. Whether lying in crib or sitting propped up on our laps, he had this crooked little look about him. 

Jack was the lower of my full-term twins; at around 35 weeks, Nellie, resourceful even in utero, turned and nestled her enormous head under my rib cage. But Jack's head was deep in my pelvis, so he got a little squished, and his neck muscles got a bit tight. Because he favored his right side, by four months, he had a flat spot, and by six months, the pressure on his little head had started to move the right side of his forehead forward a bit, distorting his face - you can kind of see below how the left side of his face looked a little smaller. It wasn't so obvious but it was definitely there.

Our pediatrician was part of the "wait and see" camp, which is something I generally like about the practice - as a new mother, I don't really need anyone to be more alarmist than I am. But at four months, she recommended we see a pediatric neurosurgeon to rule out anything serious; funny head shape can also be attributed to craniosynostosis, a birth defect that causes the baby's skull to close up too soon (babies are born with spaces in their skull to help it grow and accommodate the rapid brain growth during the first year). 

Thank goodness it was not that: Jack was diagnosed with torticollis and plagiocephaly, two easily fixable issues that are very common in twins. Torticollis is defined as "a twisted neck in which the head is tipped to one side, while the chin is turned to the other" - it happened to Jack because of his position in my uterus, the muscles on the right side of his neck were shorter and tighter than the left side, making it uncomfortable for him to turn left. Plagiocephaly is the flattening of one side of the skull. These days it happens a lot in the back of the head because parents put babies on their back to sleep; Jack's was, of course, on his right side.

We began physical therapy right away. It was not the most fun part of their first year, by any means. Although the physical therapist was fantastic, he gave me a few exercises to do with Jack - three times a day, every day - that usually resulted in Jack screaming his little funny-shaped head off and me crying because I felt like the worst mother in the world for causing him pain. After about six weeks, we saw some improvement in the torticollis, but he still had the flat spot.

We met with the neurosurgeon again and he suggested, and approved Jack for, a helmet. For about a month, Evan and I went back and forth about helmeting our kid. I had a lot of trouble with it, thinking, are we that shallow that we're going to put our sweet six month old baby in a helmet for months? But in the end, we decided we wanted to give him the best start in life, and if this seemingly simple procedure could fix something that could incite teasing or feelings of self-consciousness later on, I was all for it. 

However, I was a nervous wreck until, literally, our first meeting with the orthotist. I was crying in the waiting room, still unsure of our decision. But I have to say, I am 100% happy with our experience. We went with Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics, their office is on the Upper East Side. Not exceptionally easy to get to from Clinton Hill with two babies in tow, but luckily we always managed to find parking on that block and the drive was totally worth it. The orthotist there is Michelle, and she was just amazing to work with. Jack loved her and she was so sweet to him and Nellie. And she allayed all of my fears immediately. So, about a week before he turned six months, Jack started wearing a helmet 23 hours a day, 7 days a week.

How did we all manage with the helmet? Jack didn't notice it at all. He slept fine, he didn't fuss, he was his normal, happy, laid back self - and he learned to crawl, pull up, and cruise while wearing it. Nellie loved to tap on it and sometimes grab it if she was feeling really feisty. It took a few weeks for Evan and I to get fully assimilated to life with a helmeted kid, but eventually it was like changing diapers or washing bottles - it was just part of the routine. (During the hour "off" each day, you have to clean it and air it out...it starts to smell pretty quickly, a smell I can only compare to my brother's dirty high school football pads. It's gross.) 

We also thought it looked too clinical, even though we ordered a blue one with a picture of a NY Giants helmet on the back. So, of course, I had to give it a little character; I dragged Evan to Utrecht to buy some acrylic paint, and with some taping and tracing (and a lot of patience), we turned it into a "real" NY Giants helmet. After that, people on the street thought he was just wearing it for fun.

Jack wore the helmet from the end of August till right before Christmas. We'd make the trip to the orthotist about every other week; she would record his progress and make any necessary adjustments to the helmet, mostly to accommodate for head growth (Jack's head grew A LOT in four months). The end results were incredible. At the first appointment, they take a 3-D picture of the baby's head, as well as a number of measurements. They do it again at the last appointment, and we were in awe of how much had changed. But best of all, it was obvious in how he looked. 

A few months later, it seems like a dream (like so much of their first year does!), and his head is round and beautiful. We keep the helmet on our bookcase, it's now just a cute artifact of Jack's time as a funny-shaped infant.