I decided to post up a discussion in the message forum:

Hi Newbie Sarah here!

My son Finley will be one in a couple of weeks and has brachycephaly – a word I have only just discovered while trawling this site at great length last night. I’ve tried to measure the severity with a ruler and a keen eye and it looks like about 94%. We are considering helmet therapy now as there does not seem to be any improvement now that he is sleeping less on his back and is active and upright most of the day. I have a few questions that perhaps some of you can try and answer:

Has anyone found an easy and more accurate way of measuring the head without callipers? I am a bit annoyed that we did not try and make this measurement when he was much younger and then we would have had proof that there has or has not been any improvement

I have 2 friends who know someone whose head changed on its own but I cannot find anyone who can reassure me personally. Where are these people whose baby’s heads changed without therapy??!!

I understand that professionals want to say this because there is a cost issue to the NHS but why can they not say “Its cosmetic and therefore not something the NHS can support but it might not change and if that’s the case private therapy can work?”

I would really like to meet up with some people with these issues and was disappointed to see that I had just missed the New Year Surrey meet. I am in Farnham and would be happy to meet up locally and as far as Kingston if anyone is interested

Finally, if I could be convinced helmet therapy would work on a baby as old as ours we would go ahead with it but feel frightened when reading about head sores, poor sleep and very distressed babies. I am worried now that we have left it so long it may be less effective anyway. Comments anyone?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Sarah