Helmet Baby

We have a helmet baby!

Kail got his helmet today (4/21/2016).  We have known this was coming for a while now.  Unfortunately Kail has a rather large head (which as Kail is Jordan's clone is all Jordan's fault).  

To be honest sometimes when I look at certain photo's the "head" rant from "So I Married an Axe Murderer" starts running through my head.  (If you haven't seen the movie, you need to. Head Rant, come on people my kid has a flat head, we have already established I'm a bad mom).  Dont get me wrong our little man is the most adorable thing I've ever seen but he does have a big head (again this is Jordan's fault).

Due to the fact that he spent a good amount of time in the first few months laying on the back of his head (again, yes I'm a bad mom) in ether his swing or his crib he has developed what they call Brachycephaly.  In other words his head is very flat in the back and rather tall because it has been pushed up.  This next shot is from this morning as our "before" shot.



 

After a few days of adjustment he will end up wearing his helmet 23 hrs a day for about 3 months. The one hour of freedom is really just so we can clean him and it.  We know it sounds extreme, and yes many kids get flat spots but as you can tell from this photo, his is a bit noticeable.  After a lot of heartache and research we decided it was what is best for him.  Yes its a purely cosmetic issue.  The flat, tall head will not affect his brain growth, his brain will just grow to match his head shape without the helmet.  But I dare anyone to argue that cosmetics do not affect nearly every step of your life from friends, to dating, to job opportunities.  Having your skull misshaped can also affect things like your vision, as when your eyes are not inline or your ears are not inline, then glasses don't sit correctly.  It can also affect jaw placement, and for anyone who knows about my issues with my jaw, you should know I will do everything in my power to make sure Kail does not suffer from the same problem.  Not even my amazing insurance covers this little helmet so its been a rather expensive decision as well, but three months of wearing it, which he wont remember, is worth avoiding future complications.

As the helmet screams for attention anyway, we decided to make the best of it and make it cute. Lots of people decorate the helmets with stickers and glitter and whatnot.  But as I had some time to research it I found out that most car wrap companies will actually wrap these helmets for free.  Its smart really, you have these little cute very noticeable billboards walking/crawling/being carried around with your handy work for three months, while everyone asks who decorated it and you get to write it off your taxes as charity.  Jordan has already taken him in to get the design in motion so stay tuned for much cuter pictures, as Kail was not in the mood to alleviate mom's guilt, by giving her cute pictures.  He really just wanted to ether play with dads phone or sleep.