Do Babies Need Helmets After Aleeping on Their Back
Model Chrissy Teigen frequently shares cute photos of her two children on social media, but a contempo picture of her immature son sparked a big conversation most corrective helmets online.
Teigen, 33, posted photos of vi-month-one-time Miles on Twitter of him wearing a helmet to fix his "slightly misshapen head."
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"Baby Miles getting fitted for a niggling helmet today for his adorable slightly misshapen head," she tweeted. "And so if y'all meet pictures, don't feel bad for him because he's simply fixing his flat and honestly he's probably gonna (sic) be even cuter with it somehow."
The tweet prompted parents to share pictures of their kids wearing helmets, with many of them also posting messages of support.
"Our son wore a helmet for vii months and it worked slap-up!" one Twitter user wrote.
"My picayune Henry is also in the #helmetsquad … he'south all fixed at present," some other person tweeted.
Why do babies wear helmets?
Like in the example of Teigen's son, corrective helmets are used to "gently correct the shape of babies' skulls over time," John Hopkins Hospital explains.
Since newborns take soft skulls, it's mutual for their heads to go misshaped or flat on 1 side — specially if a baby sleeps on the same function of their head — and develop a condition called positional plagiocephaly, or "flat head syndrome."
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Flat head syndrome is not dangerous to a kid'due south brain evolution, merely a misshapen head tin become permanent if non corrected, said Samantha Lam-Bellissimo, manager of the Orthotics Clinic at the Hospital for Ill Children in Toronto.
"Largely, the reason to treat [flat caput syndrome] is cosmetic," Lam-Bellissimo told Global News. "Some people may scoff at that, saying if it's just cosmetic, why treat information technology? Just like it or not, nosotros live in a society that judges you on the way you lot expect, and if your head is largely misshapen, in that location can be some psycho-social furnishings growing up if your head [is] significantly different to other children."
Lam-Bellissimo said helmets are often given to infants under 12 months, typically betwixt the age of 5 to vii months. Later a twelvemonth, information technology is harder to correct a head's shape since a baby'south encephalon grows rapidly during their infancy.
"Because the encephalon is growing rapidly, the overlying bone structure is growing as well," she explained. "What these helmets are doing is restricting the head from growing in the areas that are likewise prominent … and directing all that time to come potential growth into the flat areas."
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Another reason infants may wear a helmet is due to a condition called craniosynostosis. This is when sutures of a baby's skull prematurely fuse, causing bug with brain and skull growth. In these cases, Lam-Bellissimo said helmets are given to infants after they have corrective surgery.
What parents should know about corrective helmets
Lam-Bellissimo said that understanding ways to prevent apartment head syndrome is central to reducing the chances that your baby will need a helmet.
"There was a really successful entrada back in the '90s to prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and all the evidence conspicuously slows that sleeping on your back does preclude SIDS," she said. "Just the problem is, I think parents took it also much to center, and now place their babies on their backs all the time."
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"But your baby isn't comatose all the fourth dimension, so information technology's really important when your baby is not comatose to go them off their back and do lots of supervised tummy time."
Lam-Bellissimo besides said information technology's important for parents to pay attention to their infant'southward range of motion, and consult a medico if their baby has limited mobility turning their head a certain fashion. If there'south tightness in their cervix muscles, babies can develop a flat caput as a event.
Lastly, she said it's of import parents abet for their children and see a specialist if they're concerned with the shape of their kid's head.
"Parents should have the right to get information, and make the choice as to what's right for their babe."
Laura.Hensley@globalnews.ca
© 2018 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/4727247/chrissy-teigen-helmet-photo-son-miles/
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