We’re happy to answer any questions you might have, with no commitment to proceed with treatment.
Hudson’s Plagiocephaly
Torticollis caused Hudson’s plagiocephaly
- Patient name: Hudson
- Treatment: Plagiocephaly treatment
- Age: 2-7 Months
- Travelled from: United Kingdom
This little boy first visited me in July 2015 with his parents. Has had been diagnosed with torticollis when he was 2 months old and had begun to receive physiotherapy to treat this. The torticollis meant that when he slept he always slept on his back with his head turned to the left. Quickly this caused plagiocephaly even though good progress was being made with his neck tightness. Despite some improvements seen with repositioning overall, his plagiocephaly was still very visible, particularly as he presented with some facial asymmetry.
He was 7 months of age when he was first assessed and his parents felt they had reached full potential with repositioning and due to his mobility, no longer had control of his sleeping position. He was diagnosed with severe plagiocephaly and his parents decided to start LOCband treatment.
From day 1 he took to wearing his helmet and his parents organized some fantastic custom made stickers to decorate his band with. He has made amazing progress and 4 months later his asymmetry has gone from 13mm to 2mm and his plagiocephaly is barely noticeable.
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This is very much dependent on how fast your baby is growing. The faster the growth, the more frequently your baby will be seen so that the helmet can be adjusted. In general, reviews will happen at two to four-week intervals.
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The price of treatment covers:
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Yes – All babies that have completed their course of treatment with us have achieved a measurable improvement in head shape. However, you don’t have to take our word for it. Recent independent research conducted by a University Hospital in Germany has endorsed the treatment for babies with moderate or severe plagiocephaly. A larger, retrospective study has just been published that found complete correction was achieved in 94.4% of babies treated with helmet therapy. The results were conclusive: repositioning achieved acceptable correction in 77.1% of cases, but 15.8% were moved onto helmet therapy because re-positioning was not working. Meanwhile, 94.4% of the infants who started in the helmet-treated group achieved full correction, as did 96.1% of those who were transferred from the repositioning group into the helmet-treated group. Further information can be found on our Plagiocephaly Research page.
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If your baby has a temperature or a fever due to illness you must remove the band. The band can be put back on once the temperature has returned to normal.
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The optimum age for treatment is between four and seven months. This is because the skull is most malleable at this age and improvements to head shape tend to take less time and are more dramatic. That is not to say that helmet therapy should be ruled out if the baby is older than seven months. Routinely, babies up to the age of 16 months can be treated very successfully. The cut off age is around 18 months when the fontanelles (soft spots on the head) are no longer malleable. As babies grow and develop at different rates, it is always worth checking if you are not sure. There have been cases where a baby’s fontanelles have not fused yet by the age of 18 months, who have achieved successful, but less-marked results with cranial remoulding therapy.
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Torticollis is a condition in which a tight or shortened muscle in one side of the neck causes the head to tilt or turn to one side, resulting in the infant resting its head in the same position. In 2013, we analysed the data from all first appointments in our Kingston clinic and found that 20% of the babies examined had some kind of neck condition that was causing head immobility.