Tag Archives: DOC Band

My Boys are fan FAVORITES of Many Teams…

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I think my boys will grow up confused when it comes to picking their favorite sports teams… I mean I hope they develop a good appreciation for different teams and different sports, and I’ll let them know Daddy won’t mind if they want to just go with all of Mommy’s favorite hometown teams! Okay, yeah, I don’t think “Daddy” will have any part of that.

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I’m from the Bay Area, California…my teams are the Oakland Raiders and the Golden State Warriors, but I also worked for the Sacramento Kings. My other half is from Chicago. He’s all about the Chicago Bears, the White Sox, the Bulls and Blackhawks. I let Daddy choose Bears when Isaiah got his Doc Band wrapped…I mean he won’t even remember it when it truly counts! Then, we met in Miami, so it’s been Miami HEAT, Dolphins, Marlins for the boys. They have worn sports gear from all the various teams and while they really don’t have a say at this point, their loyalty is to whichever team Mom or Dad dressed them in! haha

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Hmmm…is there a rule of thumb? I think many times a child’s team ends up being whatever Daddy’s team is because sometimes the Mommy’s don’t care for sports…but not in my house. While I’m not over the top crazed about which team my kids need to root for…I would like them to be on my side. Maybe they’ll go with their South Florida roots since they were born into that sports culture..it all remains to be seen.

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So, let me know if you’ve ever dealt with any of this in your house? How have your kids gone about pledging their allegiance to a team!?!?

 

The DOC Band Graduate

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My baby boy is a DOC Band Graduate! After exactly 3 months of wear, he said “bye bye” to helmet head. The journey was much quicker and easier than we could have ever imagined and we are glad we made the decision to get one for him. In hindsight, I think it was especially nice for him to have the “head gear” during his 6-9 month age range, because it certainly afforded him extra protection as he began maneuvering around as an independent sitter, crawler and eventual standing cruiser, during his time with a DOC band. Sure, that’s definitely not what it’s for or why we needed one, but hey, it was a nice “bonus.”

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At any rate, we had a wonderful experience with the DOC Band and Cranial Technologies. For the duration of the treatment, we visited the office every two weeks (frequency depends on each individual case and baby’s age), and with each visit they measured his head and shaved off part of the inside of his helmet to give way for more (head) growth. The DOC Band acts like a retainer and is custom made for each baby, to promote growth in the areas where needed. In Isaiah’s case, he had some asymmetry and flattening in the back of his head called “bracycephaly.” He also had this indent, in the back of his head from his fontanelle…

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Here’s a few shots of him as he gets his final head measurement. It’s actually pretty cool how they can pretty much create instant 3D imaging of his head shape. They put on the nylon stocking…you know, to control the flyaways! 😉 It’s a really quick procedure if they can get the right “shot”…just a minute or so.

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And — here are the comps from start to finish. Basically, the changes may seem subtle, so look closely….BUT his head shape “rounded out” more, gaining more height toward the front of his skull, as well as in the back where it filled out, so not to have such a “flat” appearance. The indent from his fontanelle filled in some too, and we are confident it will most likely continue to fill out on its own by the time he’s 2, when the bones will completely fuse and harden.

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In their technical analysis they have stats for the proportional ratio of width and length, as well as the diagonal asymmetry, which are interesting…but again it is simply amazing to witness the results as it happened, and then to now compare the visual “before and after.”

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We brought his head mold home as a “souvenir” of the experience…it makes for a nice “resting place” for his DOC Band! Overall, we’re super happy with the results and it was the right thing (for us) to do. On a side note, it’s an instant bonding thing with other parent’s who’ve had children who also wore a “baby helmet,” we’re kinda like an elite group!

For more on our DOC Band adventure, visit my previous posts:

Here’s the Deal with the Baby Helmet
DOC Band Swag

 

 

Here’s the Deal with the “Baby Helmet”…

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If you’re not familiar with the “baby helmet,” and not sure what it’s all about, this post is for you. First things first, when you see a baby or young child with it, there is nothing “wrong” with the baby. Secondly, it is not to protect their head from falling or head butting, although it may inadvertently be doing that… Lastly, it doesn’t hurt the child nor “squeeze” their head. In our case, my second son Isaiah is now wearing a DOC Band (baby helmet) from Cranial Technologies.

The band is designed to help guide and shape the baby’s head into a more natural, round shape if the baby has asymmetry or flat spots. This condition is plagiocephaly. In Isaiah’s case, he has brachycephaly where the head flattens uniformly, causing a wider and shorter shape…increased head height is also common in baby’s with this condition. And — since these days the recommendation is to place newborns and infants to sleep on their backs (prevents SIDS), rather than their stomach’s, the numbers of kid’s with flat spots has increased.

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I started noticing Isaiah’s flat spot pretty early on, it was actually more of an indent where the back plate of his head meets the top plate (sorry for my non-medical terminology). However, when they’re so young, you are waiting for the soft spots to slowly close and they don’t move too much, so even when I tried to rotate his head to each side while he slept, he favored keeping his head straight on…so in his case, his sleep positioning probably didn’t aid much in allowing the head to “round out” early on. At about his 4 month mark when we weren’t seeing the “flat spot” improve as much as we’d hoped, I did a little more research and found the “Noggin Nest” by Boppy. I wish I had come across it sooner, but it is basically a pillow designed to keep the baby’s head from being flat on a surface like a baby swing, stroller, car seat or in the crib…to encourage the shape to be round. I think it helped a lot, but not enough. We were told that 6 months is the best time to have professional evaluation on the “flat spot.” At this point, you’ve given the baby’s head enough time to see if it corrects on its own, but the head is still growing, so not too late to help shape it.

We immediately did a consult with Cranial Tech (makers of DOC Band) and also sought the advice of a craniofacial plastic surgeon. Dr. Chad Perlyn of Miami Children’s Hospital took a look at Isaiah’s head shape and advised us that his case was borderline severe, but not quite. He felt that his head would most likely fix itself and round out over time, but he noted that if we elected to do the baby helmet, it would definitely help. Dr. Perlyn told us that in most cases a child’s head will naturally get to the desired shape, and only a small percentage actually stay flat. Needless to say, after digesting all the information, we decided to go with a DOC Band for Isaiah. Our reasoning is that if Isaiah happened to be in that small percentage that didn’t fix itself, we want to know we did our part to help it round out before it’s too late – i.e. the skull is fully formed!

So, so good…we got it “wrapped” (see DOC Band Swag) at Metro Signs for the custom “design,” and one of his first full night’s wearing it he slept through the whole night! He usually doesn’t…my (big) baby loves to eat! The helmet is pretty light, so the adjustment was easy for him. He wears it 23 hours a day and we clean it and him, when we remove the helmet for bath time. Hopefully his treatment will only be 8-10 weeks, it’s really our decision, when we feel we are happy with the improvement. At every check up they compare his head to a mold of his head when we started, at last check they shaved off a bit more inside the helmet to give room for more growth, which they already saw starting… 🙂 When it’s all said and done, I will write a post on the entire experience!

 

DOC Band Swag

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My son Isaiah is now wearing a DOC Band…it’s a “baby helmet” designed to help shape and guide his head into a more round shape, since in his case he has a flat spot. I’ll write another post about the treatment and process, but this post is going to be more focused on the “swag” aka decor we had done on his helmet! But the quick summary of whats going on is, he has a form of plagiocephaly called brachycephaly, which basically means that the width of his head is considered a bit too wide compared with the length and there is flattening across the back of it. At the end of the day, it’s a cosmetic fix we are really going for here and chances are his head would probably round out on its own without the “helmet,” but after a couple expert opinions, we decided to just do it, as at 6 months it’s the ideal time for treatment, as opposed to down the road when it may be too late, if in fact his head shape did not correct on its own!

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Now back to the DOC Band. We were lucky enough to come across Metro Signs in Hollywood, Florida, who as a courtesy to the infants and babies who have to sport the head gear, wrap them at no cost. The vinyl wrap them, just as many cars you see “wrapped” these days! The design can really be anything you want and since we are a sports-oriented family, we decided to go for a design that resembled a football helmet…and we ended up with the Chicago Bears “theme,” because that’s Daddy’s team. I basically let him have his way…this time! 😉

Actually, it’s working out because the colors actually suit a good portion of Isaiah’s current wardrobe. And to Daddy’s credit, he did offer to go half-half with my NFL team being the design’s other half, but I declined…no need to add more to the mix, just wanted a simple clean design!

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Metro Signs made the process really easy and we couldn’t be more thankful. I had emailed back and forth with one of their sales reps about what I was looking to do, once we found out we’d be getting the DOC Band. Then, once we got it, they measured it, sent us a proof for approval and wrapped it up! Simple as that… and seriously, my kid just looks so darn cute with his helmet, totally game ready!!! I think another plus to decorating it (and there are plenty of options out there, just do an internet search), is that when we are out and about, instead of people looking and staring at him, wondering what that helmet is for and what’s “wrong” with my baby, they are so impressed and in awe of this uber cool “baby helmet,” that we are showered with compliments and smiles everywhere we go!

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