Help get Reubs helmet ❤️

Hi!

As you know my little boy Reuben is suffering and has been diagnosed with severe plagiocephaly!

he needs a specialist helmet that the nhs don’t provide as it’s seen as ‘cosmetic’ . We have met with a specialist who can begin treatment straight away but at a cost of £2600. It’s beneficial to start now as reuben is only 4 months his skull will shape with the helmet in 3 months with good results however if Reuben was 10-11 months the results would not be guaranteed to be as good and the helmet could be needed for 8-9 months!

I wasn’t going to set up a go fund me because I don’t expect anyone to help us especially not in this current climate but lots of people said to & I didn’t realise how kind people could be!

Thankyou so much.

More on what it is here ⬇️

What is plagiocephaly?

Plagiocephaly is the medical term used to describe a common condition in which one side of an infant’s skull is significantly flatter than the other. It is often grouped under the better-known umbrella term of ‘flat head syndrome’ along with brachycephaly. Clinical reports estimate that the condition may affect as many as one in two infants.

Babies are born with soft, impressionable skulls to aid passage through the birth canal and accommodate the rapid growth that occurs in the brain during the first few years of life. When infants spend a lot of time sleeping with their heads in the same position, a positional plagiocephaly can develop as a result of the external pressures being exerted on the skull.

In most cases, the early signs of positional plagiocephaly are detected by parents or grandparents and the condition is reversed by repositioning the head away from the flattening as the baby plays, feeds and sleeps. Babies must always be placed on the back to sleep to minimise the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Some infants with a flattening will need more targeted intervention to release tight muscles (torticollis) and enable use of the full range of motion in the neck, and this can be achieved through physiotherapy or osteopathy.

Repositioning will return the head to a more normal shape in roughly three out of four cases. Where this fails, a custom-moulded helmet can be used to achieve a complete correction in around 95 percent of cases.

Helmet therapy for plagiocephaly

Helmet therapy works by applying a gentle, continuous pressure to your baby’s developing skull throughout the day to promote even growth.

The helmet is made from light foam with a semi flexible shell and moulded to an accurate photographic scan of your baby’s head shape. It is adjusted every so often to direct the growth into the required areas.

Treatment efficacy depends on the age of the infant and the severity of the plagiocephaly, but in most cases, the helmet must be worn for around five months in order to achieve the best possible results. However for reuben we’ve been told because he’s so young it should only take 3 or so months to bring him from severe to mild!

Benefits of a plagiocephaly helmet

Plagiocephaly helmets carry several benefits. First and foremost, they are the only treatment that has been clinically proven to help infants achieve a more symmetrical head shape and therefore more symmetrical facial features.