She's a Trooper

We hit the mark of Kaylee wearing her helmet 23 hours a day yesterday. And I just have to say she's a real trooper. No crying when we put it on and she doesn't seem to mind at all. She wore it all night Monday night and slept like a dream. Tuesday night was a little rough, but we think her having trouble sleeping may have been a combination of things - a nasty little cough she has and not being able to find a comfortable spot to sleep. But, then last night, even after a full day of wearing the helmet, we were back to a a normal sleeping night -- where everyone sleeps through the night!

Its been a little adjustment to our normal routine. She has a little more hair than the average child her age and the poor thing sweats quite a bit. Thanks goodness we're going to be doing this in the middle of winter and not summer! We get to take it off for one hour each day. During that time, she gets her bath and the helmet gets cleaned too. We check for any areas on her head where the helmet could be rubbing and put lotion on to prevent chaffing. Otherwise, eating, playing, and sleeping aren't really affected at all. We can take the helmet off briefly to change clothes or if she's not feeling well. We take the opportunity in the morning when I get her dressed to clean the helmet again and get her hair dry before we head out the door to daycare.

One of the concerns of this experience has focused less on how she's doing, but how other people are perceiving her. Cranial remolding helmets are becoming more common in their usage. And I'm sure most people have seen children wearing them. Our first experience out and about (for a significant amount of time) was last night when we went grocery shopping. First, a disclaimer - our little girl is a ham. She's a happy kid that is smiling about 85% of the time - and wearing the helmet there is no difference. We went through the store with her smiling and occasionally waving to many of the shoppers. The general response is usually something like "What a sweetie!" and "How cute!".

Since it is a big concern of mine, I couldn't help myself last night thinking whether or not these people were paying more attention to her because she has a helmet on. There were only a couple of people that specifically mentioned her helmet when they stopped and I know I need to not let things like that consume my mind. Like we've said before she's our sweet, little, perfect girl regardless if she has a helmet or a paper bag on her head. She responds to people no differently so I need to do the same. I think we will all be learning some life lessons over the next couple of months.