Lillian's mother collects flowers and voucher during discharge appointment
14 July 2022
Celebrating LOCband Lite’s first year since launch – the 250th baby is discharged after successful helmet therapy treatment.
Cranial remoulding therapy, as it is called, is the universally accepted treatment option for babies that have moderate to severe Positional Plagiocephaly (flat head syndrome).
Here is Lillian and her mum Leigh-Ann who today were celebrating the end of treatment and there was a double celebration as LOC marked the occasion of discharging their 250th LOCband Lite patient with gifts of flowers and vouchers for mum.
LOCband Lite was launched a year ago. Building upon the long-term success of our traditional LOCband, our in-house design team redesigned the cranial helmet for 3D printing. The aim was to create a 3D-printed cranial helmet that still gives the correct amount of force to remodel the head shape, whilst increasing comfort due to a lightweight and ventilated design. LOCband Lite is about 40% lighter than the original LOCband, thanks to the walls of the helmet being thinner. One of the benefits of this is that the helmet causes less strain on the neck thus helping in the treatment of torticollis. It also means LOC is using less plastic to manufacture in comparison to traditional polypropylene helmets. We have calculated it equates to a saving of 1120g per band which over a year amounts to an incredible 336kg - apparently is the equivalent weight of three male baby elephants!
Lillian's LOCband Lite discharge report
Lillian’s discharge reports show the kind of improvements in head shape that are typical with LOCband Lite regardless of whether a baby has a plagiocephalic or brachycephalic head shape. The reduction in the asymmetry in Lillian’s head shape – from 15mm to 1mm – is quite remarkable and it only took three months to achieve. Leigh-Ann says:
“The results really do speak for themselves, treatment has worked amazingly well, we are so pleased we went ahead with LOCband Lite. It was actually my husband who first noticed that there was something wrong with Lillian’s head shape and immediately set about trying to find out more via the internet. As LOC offered a free face-to-face consultation it seemed sensible to seek out specialist advice.
"Lillian accepted her ‘helmet’ quite well. Indeed the only initial problems were in the first couple of days when we took the helmet off and then put it back on as recommended; as soon as we moved to almost continuous wear Lillian forgot she was wearing it. Based on our experience we would say, start treatment as soon as possible if your baby is in a severe category; you will hit all the growth spurts and treatment will take no time at all.”
Bonnie at her second review with parents
As Lillian and Leigh-Ann left, LOC welcomed Bonnie and her parents who have just started their LOCband Lite journey. As summer is truly upon us one additional feature of LOCband Lite becomes even more important – ventilation. Babies become less hot and bothered, leading to improved compliance during the night, ensuring that the length of treatment is as short as possible (typically 3-6 months). Another feature of LOCband Lite that parents appreciate is that it is far less bulky and has a lower profile than traditional helmets.
If you are worried about your baby’s head shape, please get in touch with us to find out more about LOCband Lite and our treatment for Positional Plagiocephaly.
This is very much dependent on how fast your baby is growing. The faster the growth, the more frequently your baby will be seen so that the helmet can be adjusted. In general, reviews will happen at two to four-week intervals.
The price of treatment covers:
Yes - All babies that have completed their course of treatment with us have achieved a measurable improvement in head shape. However, you don’t have to take our word for it.
Recent independent research conducted by a University Hospital in Germany has endorsed the treatment for babies with moderate or severe plagiocephaly.
A larger, retrospective study has just been published that found complete correction was achieved in 94.4% of babies treated with helmet therapy.
The results were conclusive: repositioning achieved acceptable correction in 77.1% of cases, but 15.8% were moved onto helmet therapy because re-positioning was not working. Meanwhile, 94.4% of the infants who started in the helmet-treated group achieved full correction, as did 96.1% of those who were transferred from the repositioning group into the helmet-treated group.
Further information can be found on our Plagiocephaly Research page.
If your baby has a temperature or a fever due to illness you must remove the band. The band can be put back on once the temperature has returned to normal.
The optimum age for treatment is between four and seven months.
This is because the skull is most malleable at this age and improvements to head shape tend to take less time and are more dramatic. That is not to say that helmet therapy should be ruled out if the baby is older than seven months. Routinely, babies up to the age of 16 months can be treated very successfully.
The cut off age is around 18 months when the fontanelles (soft spots on the head) are no longer malleable. As babies grow and develop at different rates, it is always worth checking if you are not sure. There have been cases where a baby’s fontanelles have not fused yet by the age of 18 months, who have achieved successful, but less-marked results with cranial remoulding therapy.
Torticollis is a condition in which a tight or shortened muscle in one side of the neck causes the head to tilt or turn to one side, resulting in the infant resting its head in the same position. In 2013, we analysed the data from all first appointments in our Kingston clinic and found that 20% of the babies examined had some kind of neck condition that was causing head immobility.
The clinics and clinicians that provide this treatment in the UK will have received similar training and experience. However, we are the only clinic that manufactures its own helmet and our clinicians are closely involved with the process for each individual helmet that we produce.
In addition, we do not restrict review appointments to a set number, we are extremely flexible and respond to individual parents' needs so that the best outcome can be achieved for each baby.
The LOCband is non-invasive and works by applying gentle, constant pressure over the areas of the baby’s skull that are most prominent while allowing unrestricted growth over the flattened areas. The band consists of a soft foam layer inside a thermoplastic shell. As the baby grows, the band will be adjusted frequently to gently guide the skull into a more symmetrical shape.
