Seeking advice re: helmet

[Melanie]

Hi...our daughter had surgery on Sept. 21/11. We have had major issues with her helmet...she was supposed to start wearing it consistently 3 weeks after the surgery...however, there was some miscommunication between the surgeon and orthotist and it took another month before we got it...we are concerned that the window may have passed and it won't be of any use. Anyway, my questions are:1. What have you done about the odour in the helmet? We've been using baby shampoo to wash it and occasionally rubbing alcohol...but, we think that the rubbing alcohol is irritating our daughter's scalp....2. Has anyone's child had eczema? Our daughter has it so bad that it is causing extreme redness on her scalp...making her try to pull off the helmet to scratch. We don't know what we can use to ease the itchiness when she has to wear the helmet for 23 hours out of the day....3. Because she is wearing the helmet for so long, she has developed a skin rash all over her body...heat rash? Any solutions for this? Please help! Thanks in advance!!!Melanie

[BabyGabey]

Sorry your having trouble with the helmet. We use rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball for the inside of the helmet... And then some mustela no rinse cleansing fluid to help with the smell....Make sure it's completely dry before putting it back on it will help to keep it from irritating the scalp. I found that baby shampoo with lavender is the only shampoo that gets the smell off of his head. I usually have to wash it twice if not three times. It took a couple of weeks for his body to adjust to added heat from the helmet. We did 10 minute breaks a few times a day in the beginning putting a cool damp wash cloth on his head to cool down... While the wash cloth was on his head I would wipe down the inside of the helmet too which helped because it prevented the smell from building up over the course of the whole day. Now that he is adjusted to the heat we haven't had to use the cool washcloths and the smell is actually not as bad because he doesn't sweat as much as he did in the beginning. If you are putting lotion on the dry skin patches make sure it is completely absorbed into the skin before the helmet goes back on or it causes chaffing and will almost become raw. i learned that one the hard way!!!We started putting powder on his head on the dry patches right before the helmet goes back on and it helps with the friction and it has kept the skin from becoming irritated. I hope this helps!! Good luck it gets better :)

[JillysMama]

We did many things that the previous post replied with. We washed her hair daily with a mild shampoo and wiped the helmet with alcohol. I also used scent-free shampoo because it's better for sensitive skin. Since her head was encased in a helmet so much I feared that the scented shampoos cause irritation.

We were not told to put alcohol on my daughters scalp directly and I would think that'd be too strong for her scalp. It would likely make her skin red and dry which would then cause cracking, itching, and later cause infection. I don't have any experience with eczema, but if you refrain from alcohol on the scalp you may see some improvement.

During the hot summer months if my daughter was sweating a lot we'd take off the helmet for short periods just to wipe the sweat off of her. Her body became adjusted to the change in temperature in about 2 weeks and she stopped sweating and overheating. As far as the sweaty smell... we were never able to eliminate it completely. Some days were better than others, but she always had a dirty sock smell on her full head of hair. We did the best we could, but tried not to stress about it as long as her skin looked healthy.

Oh, and did your orthotist drill some air holes in the helmet? That helped a ton to minimize sweating and overheating.

Since your daughter is almost one years old there is still some benefit of using the helmet so late in the game. My daughter was in her helmet from 3 months till 15 months. We could still see improvements in those last three months since her skull was still pretty elastic.

Good luck with everything and keep up the good work!

[Melanie]

Thanks for your replies! We live in Canada and don't have Mustela, but I asked my mother-in-law to pick some up when she is in Phoenix...we are trying a cotton cap under the helmet to help with the eczema...it's almost like pantyhouse and keeps slipping up, we are trying to cut the material in a way that it stays in place...