Cranial Orthosis

Boston Band Cranial Remodeling Helmet Orthosis

A few things to remember:

• You cannot hurt the helmet. However, you can hurt your child if helmet snaps back on them.
• Practice opening and closing the helmet to get you used to it.
• Your child may scrunch their eyebrows down which makes putting on the helmet difficult.
• Helmet may not look like a circle and this is due to the shape of the child’s head. This is normal. The pads inside the helmet are doing the work to remold your child’s head. There will be a void in padding in some places to push the head to grow towards the open areas to allow for correction.

How to put on your child’s cranial remolding helmet:

1. Place hands on either side of opening and pull open.
2. Try to place ear hole opposite to the opening over ear and align the forehead with the front of helmet. The eyebrows will be covered.
3. The helmet should fit snug but not causing pain.
4. Both ears should be exposed, with the helmet close behind the ears.
5. The occipital role should be placed at the base of the child head. This will stop any spinning that can occur in the helmet.
6. Make sure the helmet looks even from the front. Both side burns should be roughly in the same spot.
7. Do not be afraid to take helmet off and put it on again if something looks weird.

Wearing Schedule:

It is very important to follow the wearing schedule below. This will allow your child to ease in to wearing the helmet. The helmet will eventually be worn for 23 hours and should only be removed for one hour at bath time.

Precautions:

• Helmet should not be worn during bath or pool time. If helmet gets wet, use a dry washcloth to dry. Make sure it is completely dry before placing back on child’s head.
• If child has been given stretching exercises, remove helmet and complete the exercises then put helmet back on. These should be done during the one hour the helmet is off.
• Helmet wearing should be paused if child presents with a cold or a fever or directed by physician. Once cold or fever has cleared, resume wearing the helmet to normal schedule.
• Check your child’s skin each time helmet is removed. There may be some slight redness on face or neck but if redness does not disappear within 30 minutes, keep helmet off until redness clears. If this redness occurs again and does not go away within the 30 minutes discontinue the use of the helmet or if skin breakdown occurs, please contact your Ability Orthotist to schedule an appointment for an adjustment.
• Please call your Ability office if you have ANY concerns.
• During the first few days of wearing the helmet, excessive sweating is normal. If this occurs remove helmet wipe it out and wipe off your child’s head. Cradle cap may occur as well.

Cleaning and Maintenance:

• The best way to clean the helmet is to spray 70% rubbing alcohol on the inside and out of helmet and wipe down with a dry cloth. This will remove any body oils and residue. Make sure helmet and child’s head is dry before reapplying helmet.
• Child’s head should be washed daily to decrease the amount of build up that occurs in the helmet.
• If the Velcro is not sticking well on the helmet, check for lint build-up on the Velcro and remove it.