Luke’s Story
Having started with severe brachycephaly, little Luke has completed his TiMband treatment with excellent results! Looking back on the experience, Julie talks us through her son’s journey.
“We first noticed Luke’s flattening when he was only 8 weeks old, straight away we became concerned and looked up how we could help to prevent it from getting any worse. I brought him to see a children’s physiotherapist who specialised in flat head syndrome. She had shown me exercises and techniques to try and keep him off his flat spot. At the same time, I brought this up with my local GP who assured me it was one of those things and that he would grow out of it”.
Despite this advice, it just didn’t sit well with Luke’s parents, “fast forward weeks of worry, tummy time, many, many expensive pillows and mattresses, and Luke’s head shape just continued to get worse and worse. I brought him to a children’s chiropractor, a craniosacral therapist, and finally a pediatric consulted who specialised in craniofacial problems in children, who confirmed that Luke had a classic case of positional flat head syndrome. Again, we were advised that he would improve over time. At this point, myself and my husband knew we were doing more than was recommended to prevent and correct this problem, but still our little man’s head continued to worsen. It was heart breaking. All these days and weeks when we should be enjoying our beautiful boy and all we could do was worry.” Julie and her husband decided that they couldn’t let this continue.
Although uncertain at first, Julie came across helmet therapy, “I decided that the advice we had received wasn’t good enough. I was tired of being fobbed off and so I googled treatments. I found numerous clinics in the UK and so in turn began contacting them and gathering information. Anyone I discussed the helmet therapy with thought I was mad… overreacting even. But I was starting to think it was our only hope. I joined some plagiocephaly advice groups on Facebook and started asking fellow parents who recommended time and time again that the answer was Technology in Motion. Everyone spoke so highly of them and when I contacted Steve Mottram, I was sure we were making the right decision.”
Although a tough decision, Julie and her husband decided that helmet treatment was right for Luke: “We didn’t make the decision lightly. We are living in Ireland and so there was going to be a lot of travelling with a young baby involved, adding to the overall cost of treatment. But we knew we had to try the treatment to know we had done absolutely everything we could. Luke started treatment on May 4th at just over 5 months of age. We were nervous that he wouldn’t take to it well or that people would be rude and stare. It was a very daunting thing to do for our small baby. But thankfully, Luke adapted to the helmet well and within no time at all, it just became part of our routine.”
“Luke’s treatment took almost 8 months in total, but we went from extremely severe brachycephaly at 104% to 90% in that time. The visual change to his head shape is unbelievable. We never looked back once we started our treatment. We had good weeks and bad weeks. We became disheartened from time to time, but we persevered and finished just outside of mild. We couldn’t have hoped for more. Luke finished his helmet treatment just after his 1st birthday and only days after stopping, he started to walk… and as tempting as it is to put the helmet back on to prevent the inevitable bumps and bruises, we are delighted to be finished with treatment. The staff in TiM were always so welcoming and always had time to answer our questions, no matter how silly they might have been. We are so happy we went with our gut and pursued treatment.”
If you can relate to Julie and Luke’s flat head syndrome, and would like to know if your baby would benefit from a helmet, book your free appointment with us today!
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