Same smiling face without the white cue ball head. It has now been a month since Thomas was freed from the headgear he wore for over seven months. For the first couple weeks after the helmet came off, every time I dressed him I glanced around looking for the helmet to put back on. The first day back at daycare the kids all wondered who the new kid was. I really don’t miss it at all. Now I can snuggle up to him without a plastic barrier.

For those that don’t know, Thomas wore the helmet because he had a flat head. When he was young, he like to sleep on one side. This became typical after parents were encouraged to place their infants on their backs to sleep due to SIDS. Although the Back-To-Sleep campaign helped decrease the number of infants dying from SIDS, there was a rise of kids with flat heads.

We attempted to avoid the helmet by doing the suggested physical therapy, trying to train him to sleep on the other side to even things out. Because we went the route of physical therapy first, we lost valuable growth time. His friend was diagnosed at the same time but was immediately placed in the helmet. Three months later, he was done. In terms of the progress made on guiding Thomas’s head back to normal, he went from 8% out of shape to about 3.5%. I believe we were aiming for 3%. It is still a little misshapen, but really, whose head is perfectly round and maybe it will be enough to convince him that shaving his head is a bad idea. A mother can only hope.

Oh, yes… his hair is definitely red with a slight curl to it. I’m hoping the prophecy of the recent MIA video doesn’t come true and that Kick-a-ginger Day never amounts to much when he grows up. The hair recently needed cutting, which I chose to do myself. Although I feel I slipped up a few times due to Thomas continually trying to look back at what I was doing, I received confirmation from my stylist that she could really do much better. Glad I saved money on that.