Our Little Football Fan

Justin got the much-anticipated helmet on Friday. While he doesn't love it, he seems to be adjusting okay to it. Until his head grows and it starts to become more round, it won't fit very well, but I think that bothers James and I more than Justin. We are constantly re-adjusting it. On the first day, he only wore it for an hour, yesterday he wore it for four hours, today he wore it for six, tomorrow he'll wear it for eight, and by Tuesday, he'll be wearing it a whopping twenty-three hours a day for the duration. We're hoping it will only be for eight weeks, but it may be as long as six months. To help cute it up a bit, I bought a big blue 'Y' vinyl sticker to put on the side. Now it looks a little like a BYU football helmet. In fact, a lot of people at church today thought we were just really big football fans...now that would be funny if we were that fanatical!

You can see in the picture where the helmet puts pressure on his head. Those are the parts of his forehead that are pushed too far forward, it's like that on one side of his head in the back, too. The flatter parts of his head don't fill out the helmet, but the idea is that as his head grows, it will fill in the gaps.

We've also been going to a physical therapist and doing exercises at home to help the muscle imbalance in his neck. This is actually the root of the problem. He "dropped" early before he was born, and was smashed up against my side for a long time. This resulted in him being born with a flat head on one side, and under-developed neck muscles on one side. After he was born, in an effort to prop up his head, the muscles on one side of his neck (the stronger side) shortened and tightend. So, his head tilted to the side all the time, and he could only lay in one position, making the flatness of his head worse. This condition is known as "torticollis". He's made a lot of progress with the physical therapy, but if it's not enough, he'll also have to wear a TOT collar. It's a sort of neck brace to hold his head upright. Justin has the muscle mobility and the strength to hold his head up straight, now, but he tends not to out of habit. If that continues, he'll have to wear the collar, too.

It hasn't been too bad. At least these are all things that can be fixed and they're not life-threatening, and our insurance did end up covering the helmet, which is a small miracle in and of itself.