Tag Archives: plagiocephaly

Harper’s DOC Band

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Wow, I am slacking on the blog! Case in point – Harper got her Doc Band back in December (6 weeks ago) and I’m just now getting around to writing about it.

IMG_4210If you remember, both boys wore the band as well to re shape their heads.  Our pediatrician said that she believes some babies just have softer skulls than others.  Apparently our kids have pretty soft skulls – but don’t think that means they aren’t hard-headed toddlers! Oh my, can they be hard-headed.  Sorry, back to Harper…

From day 1, Harper has always turned her head to the side when she sleeps.  I would go in and turn her head the other way all day long, but no matter how many times I turned it, she just turned it back.  We even let her sleep on her tummy during the day, yes her tummy….her pediatrician okayed it, so we’re all good.  None of that helped and her head just continued to get mis-shaped.

IMG_0572So we decided to get her evaluated by Cranial Technologies, which is who we used for Hayden and Ian’s Doc Bands.  We had a great experience with them and now their heads are beautiful! The only issue we had was that Cranial Tech wasn’t in network for our insurance.  Our pediatrician office just wrote a letter of medical necessity for that specific band and we got it approved.  This time, we didn’t have to do any of that.  They automatically approved it, so a few weeks later she was getting her band.

IMG_4233She has worn it for about 6 weeks now and there is such a big difference in her head shape.  She will probably wear it for a few more weeks, unless we get a pleasant surprise next week at her check up.

I decorated her band with some stickers and decals and it really turned out cute!  We actually had an appointment to get it wrapped from a company that does free wraps for orthotic devices  (www.wrapbuddies.com) but I didn’t think it was going to be as cute as hers is now, so we cancelled the appointment and just left her band as it is now.

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Doc Bands

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As I have mentioned before, the boys needed to get Doc Bands to help reshape their heads. Both boys have what’s called Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly. This effects a large portion of twins due to limited space in the womb and a lot end up needing the bands . I knew Hayden would need one the first second I saw him, he was positioned very low in utero and didn’t move positions at all throughout the entire pregnancy. Ian on the other hand wasn’t nearly as bad but still needed one.

The boys got their Doc Bands a week ago and are quickly adjusting to life with a band attached to their head. They are supposed to wear the bands 23 hours a day with only 1 hour off for bath and to clean the band. So far we haven’t had a full 23 hours in the band. At first you are supposed to check them every 3-4 hours and if there is any redness leave the band off until it goes away. Well we’ve had some issues of getting really red and some skin breaking. But we have had each issue addressed by cranial tech, who we are using.

The boys weren’t too sure about the bands at first, but were great and didn’t pull on them or try to take them off or anything.

Ian in his Doc Band


Hayden in his Doc Band

They are sleeping in the bands and honestly, we expected them not to sleep well the first night or two. I don’t think it even phased them! They slept fine with the bands on.

The boys sure don’t let the bands keep them from playing. They love to play in their jumperoo and walker and won’t let that band stop them.

Ian


Hayden

The bands are just a white plastic and very medical like. So to make them a little more friendly and pleasant looking, we added a sticker to the back of each band and their names on the front so we can know which band belongs to each boy. The sticker says “Monkey See” on one and the other says “Monkey Do”…

back of the bands


There is a company in our area that does car wraps called 360 Wraps and they have started doing wraps on Doc Bands and other medical prosthetics for kids. They started out doing a few and it got so big they decided to start doing a once a month party where families can come and get their bands wrapped for free. We missed the April part because we got the band the same day as the party, so we are going to go to the May party and get their bands wrapped. I’ll post pictures once we get them done.

Like I mentioned earlier, there have been some issues with skin readness, rubbing and even skin breaking from the bands. Usually its not that bad and typically clears up in a short period of time. Well, I got Hayden up this morning and took his band off and this is what I saw…
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This is what happens when you have a stomach sleeper and his face is pressed against the band all night. It has cleared up throughout the day and looks much better but we are leaving it off until it completely fades away.

We went for our weekly adjustment and there has already been some improvement in both of their head shapes. Both of their heads have grown a good amount so we had to have the bands adjusted so the growth will be redirected in the right ways. We will go back weekly for the duration of treatment and hope to continue to see improvements like we did today.