A Dad's Fashion Sense Makes Cranial Bands a Cool Accessory.

(pictures from Today.com)


Wesley Piercy wanted to take his son's current condition and turn it into a positive experience. Instead of worrying about the 'poor baby' looks, he wanted to embrace the situation. So he let the 'force', or R2D2, help. "So we decided to take the current situation we were in and embrace it as much as we could. I would rather have people asking us to take a picture and praising our situation as opposed to getting sympathy."

The bands are worn to protect flat spots on the head, plagiocephaly, encouraging it to fill out. "Experts say it’s a side effect of guidelines advising parents to put infants to sleep on their backs. The campaign, which began in the 1990s, reduced the rate of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but also meant babies were often falling asleep with their head always turned to one side, said Dr. Joseph Losee, the division chief of pediatric plastic surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Since babies have soft skulls, the repeated pressure to the same area of the head often results in a flat spot. “That can not only cause some abnormal head shapes but it can even change your face, and those facial changes often don’t get better,” Dr. Losee said, adding the problem occurs more frequently in boys and on the right side of the head. “If it’s a really bad deformity, then we put them in a helmet.”"

As the Today Show posts states this has created a new arts and crafts business like "Bling Your Band" and "Wrap Buddies". Pininterest also shows designs. To read the entire post, go here.