Liam and His Band...One Week-ish Down

Liam has had his band now for over a week. Unfortunately, he has not been able to wear it as much as he should the past week. Here's why: For the first couple of days, we were supposed to give him a one hour break from the band every 3-4 hours. We did that the remainder of last Thursday after he got it, and then Friday, which was when we traveled to Louisiana. If he had any red spots, we needed to let them go away before putting the band back on. He was still getting redness on Saturday, so I ended up giving him breaks then as well, even though he was supposed to be wearing it 23 hours a day at that point. The fact that we were not at home and were visiting lots of people made me take it off more often.

Once we got home on Sunday, I was determined to keep him in it as much as possible. I think at that point he had slept in it Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Thankfully, it doesn't seem to bother him to sleep in it. Anyway...Sunday night, he was sleeping in it, and then at 1:00 a.m. we all had to go to the emergency room because Will was dehydrated. Liam stayed asleep at the ER until about 3:00 a.m. and then he woke up and was fussy. Since Will was asleep getting his fluids, I had to do my best to keep Liam quiet and entertained in our room in the ER. So the first thing I did was take off his band. He had some redness, so I knew I wouldn't be putting it back on him for awhile. He also managed to scratch his forehead and draw blood, so I didn't want to put it on an open wound.

I don't really remember much of Monday, but I know he slept in it that night. On Tuesday morning, when I took it off to inspect his head, he had a large, bright red spot on the edge of his forehead and going down the side of his face some. Tuesday morning, we met up with some friends, and I had the band off the whole time because he still had some redness. Tuesday afternoon, I took him and the band to Cranial Tech for an adjustment since he was having so many redness issues. They shaved some off in the trouble spots, and said the redness on his forehead was a heat rash and that it needed to be completely gone before I put it back on. It had gone down a lot by then, so they said to wait until Wednesday morning to put it back on.

Wednesday, I got sick and spent as much time as I could in bed, but I think Will kept it on him a good bit. I think he wore it a good bit on Thursday as well. Friday morning, he had some redness on the back of his head, so after it went away, I put the band back on. I checked on it a few hours later, and the redness had come back and was actually worse than before. I knew it was heat rash and that the band needed to stay off until it went away. So he did not sleep in it last night. I guess in the eight nights he's had it, he hasn't slept in it 2 and half nights. Today the redness is gone, but I'm checking it a lot to make sure.

He has another adjustment on Tuesday. Hopefully the heat rash will not continue to be an issue. It does make the skin on his forehead and head very dry, and I can't put lotion on it. It definitely has a stinky feet odor as well, because it makes his head sweat like crazy. All in all, it doesn't seem to bother him, though. I don't really see any progress yet, though. I feel like he's going to have to wear it the maximum amount of time if he keeps having to take all these breaks because of redness and heat rash.