When I found out that Lincoln was in the breech position I never in a million years thought there would be repercussions.

We didn’t want a lot of people to know, but our oldest had to wear a Doc Band starting when he was 4 months old. We didn’t want a lot of questions, but in the grand scheme of things, it really wasn’t that big of a deal… but try telling that to a new mother of a then 3 month old. I really wish I would have had someone to talk to that had been through the process, but I didn’t so I was very uneducated about the whole thing.

So here’s our story, and at the end of the day, it’s the best decision we’ve made for Lincoln to date!

When Lincoln was born we thought he was absolutely perfect! He always measured in the 90^th % for head circumference so while it was big we never noticed anything wrong with the shape of it. At Lincoln’s 2 month check up our pediatrician recommended we go to Cranial Technologies to have a free exam to see whether Lincoln was a candidate for the Doc Band. I wasn’t very familiar with this thing called a doc band so I checked out ole’ faithful, Google. I WAS HORRIFIED! IT WAS A HELMET (I’ll get to that later)! All I could do was hope and pray that he wouldn’t be a candidate for this thing that looked like a bicycle helmet.

So we went in for our free consultation at Cranial Technologies. Ugh, I was devastated when we walked in and I saw so many adorable little babies wearing helmets. The technician was super friendly and walked me through what we were going to be doing, which was really just wetting down his hair and taking multiple pictures from various angles of his head. We sat and waited for a while and then the technician came into our room with all of the photos. She began showing me areas of his head that were misshaped and told me it was most likely from him being in the breech position. Basically, my rib cage squashed the right side of his head due to him being jammed up in there for the final months of my pregnancy. So she broke the news to me and told me Lincoln was indeed a candidate for the Doc Band. I BURST into tears! My baby was going to wear a helmet! The technician corrected me and told me it’s not a “helmet”… it’s a Doc Band… woops. I asked a lot of questions and eventually she put me at ease. She said ultimately it was our decision as to whether we wanted him to wear the band, but that his facial features were beginning to show signs of asymmetry and that his ears were already off balance because of it (one was further back on his head than the other). Great, if we don’t do it our son is always going to blame us for his misshaped head and asymmetrical face and ears.

You can see how on his left side (our right) the bulging above his ear. You can also see how one ear appears higher than the other, but it’s actually more forward on his face than the other. You can also see how wide his forehead is.

You can see Lincoln’s hairline and how it’s crooked. Another sign of how it’s misshapen.

This picture really showcases how off his little noggin really was.

We looked at the Doc Band like braces for the head and that’s how we described to everyone. We told everyone to call it a band NOT a helmet, because a helmet is for protection and a band is for reshaping. The good news was that because he was still so young, his head was growing rapidly so he would only have to wear it for 6-8 weeks. The bad news was that he would wear the band 23 hours 7 days/week with only 1 hour/day allowed for changing, bath time, or the occasional photo opp. The band was to be tight in areas where his head was too big and loose in areas where it was too small. As his head grew those tight places would be held and his head would grow into the loose areas.

When he got fitted for the band they took what looked like cut off panty hose and put it completely over his head and face. I thought he was going to have a panic attack, but strangely he didn’t. As his little face was smushed by panty hose I couldn’t help but laugh… he looked like he was about to rob a bank! They had to do this for 3D imaging to create the doc band custom for his little head. The process to get fitted and have the band made was a few weeks so he started wearing it around 4 months. Great, just in time for the holidays!

Really the process flew by! We had weekly visits to Cranial Technologies where they would shave out parts of the band to allow room for more growth. The band didn’t affect his sleeping at all… it was like an appendage for Lincoln… something he just had. He sweated galore in the thing and we didn’t get to put cute hats on him during the winter, but overall, we’re so happy we made the Doc Band decision! Yes, he got all sorts of looks when we were out at places but for the most part he got so much positive attention! In fact he got WAY more attention with the band than without. I think it was because most people caught themselves staring so rather than just staring and saying nothing they would stare and say “oh how cute is he?” Whatever, it worked for me :). And if you ever see a baby with a Doc Band DON’T call it a helmet… take it from me, it annoyed the crud out of us!

7 weeks later, Cranial Technologies felt his head was as good as it could be and he had graduated from the program! No more stinky Doc Band! We were so happy he was finished with the band and so thankful that his ears were in the right spot and that his head was “normal”. Here are his after pictures.

You can see how his head is much more smooth. It is still a little flat on his right side and will always be that way, but as our technician put it, his 1st girlfriend will never notice.

A perfect little egg!

At 16 months of age {update: Lincoln is now 4 years old!!!!}, the Doc Band is such a distant memory, but we still keep his Popsicle head and band so Lincoln can see it when he’s older.

The band went through hell and lost letters and paint along the way!

To see more before and after photos, please click on the link– Mack, Lincoln 02-07-11 Exit-1 And please understand that at 3 months Lincoln was going through a “startled” look phase so be kind with your thoughts on page 2 :).

:: Did you child have to wear a Doc Band? ::