Tyla Rodgers

Baby – Tyla Rodgers

Parents – Michelle & Warren Rodgers

Location – Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Tyla wearing her new Starband™ Helmet

Diagnosis – Severe plagiocephaly (19mm asymmetry)

Age treatment started – 5 months

Age treatment finished – 7½ months

Tyla’s head was normal at birth, but only three weeks later, her mum, Michelle, noticed that it was becoming flattened on one side at the back. Says Michelle, “I was paranoid as my son has a flat head at the back. My husband, Warren, thought I was overly concerned, but I mentioned it to the health visitor straight away and also told her that Tyla was laying on her right side a lot of the time.”

The health visitor told Michelle that it was normal for most babies to prefer laying on one side, but that if things had not changed by the time Tyla was seven weeks old, she would refer her for physiotherapy. Others told her to grow her daughter’s hair long so people would not notice, or that Tyla’s head would magically pop out when she started to sit up.

Continues Michelle, “Despite the assurances, I was still worried as the health visitor seemed more concerned about Tyla holding her head on one side than with the flatness of her head.”

Tyla eventually did see a physiotherapist, who diagnosed plagiocephaly. With simple repositioning techniques, the severity of plagiocephaly can be reduced over time. Michelle Rodgers was lucky to find a physiotherapist who was well versed in repositioning and how it can help prevent and improve plagiocephaly.

The aims of repositioning are to encourage the baby to rest their head on the non-flattened areas, to avoid any systematic pressure that will continue to flatten it. Until a baby is about seven months old, careful attention to repositioning can greatly improve head shape. While the advice from health professionals to place babies on their backs to sleep is right - to help prevent SIDS (cot death) - during waking hours, they should spend as much time as possible on their tummies. Parents are encouraged to follow the “Back to sleep, tummy time to play” philosophy, so that pressure is taken off the flattened area, allowing time for the head to grow in the right places.

Tyla also had torticollis, or tight neck muscles on one side, hence the reason she showed a preference for lying on one side. Torticollis is a common condition, and regular physiotherapy can stretch the tightened muscle to allow normal left and right head movements.

With weekly physio appointments, Tyla began treatment for her torticollis. “But”, says Michelle, “she just wasn’t responding to repositioning as far as her head shape was concerned. I wasn’t satisfied and her head was so bad that I feared for her when she was older. To me she is perfect, but I needed to be able to look her in the eyes when she was older and getting picked on and tell her I did everything I possibly could. I remembered seeing part of a television programme from years before about helmets, so I started searching the internet with all sorts of combinations about helmets and plagiocephaly.”

Through her searches, Michelle discovered cranial remoulding. Using a type of band or helmet – medically known as an orthosis – cranial remoulding therapy allows the head to gradually reshape as it grows. Comments Michelle, “I talked to the physios about it and one said she vaguely knew of the bands as a colleague had attended a seminar, but the other one gave me the impression that she disapproved.”

Michelle also came across a web-based support group for parents in the UK where she found contact details for Stephen Mottram and the STARband treatment. “I felt Steve was very knowledgeable and somewhat of a father figure, rather than being very clinical and medical. Tyla seemed to be at ease with him too, which was always going to be a winner. Other parents on the support group website advocated the STARband and I could see the great results their babies had achieved.”

With a head that was asymmetrical by nearly two centimetres, Tyla’s plagiocephaly was diagnosed as severe. Says Michelle, “None of my family and friends had heard of plagio, let alone the STARband, and when they saw the helmet said it wasn’t what they expected.” Despite this, Michelle’s friends and family all reacted positively to five-month-old Tyla’s new headgear, and acceptance of the helmet was made even easier by the speedy results: “My Mum was astonished at the improvement after just two weeks.”

Tyla took to the helmet well, and Michelle says that it became just like another piece of clothing to her. After only eleven weeks, her head had improved so much that Michelle and Warren decided, along with Stephen Mottram, that her treatment could successfully be concluded. Michelle says, “We were happy after just two weeks, and on completion we were ecstatic. I can’t stop touching her head now. It is fantastic and totally incredible that eleven weeks can do this.”

Tyla’s specialist, Stephen Mottram, is also pleased with her results. He comments, “Tyla had severe plagiocephaly, but was treated at the optimum age. She had some excellent growth and her heads looks absolutely perfect now.”

Michelle is keen to urge others to seek treatment, for their babies, “I can’t recommend the STARband enough. I truly believe that like in the US, helmet therapy should be recommended by health professionals as the next step, or at least the next option. From the support website’s members it is obvious that it’s wanted and has fantastic results.”

She continues, “If I wasn’t insistent and didn’t have access to the web, I wonder whether Tyla might still have a flat head.”

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Tyla before and after STARband treatment