Jack, Billie & Spencer are our triplets who were born prematurely at 31 weeks at the end of July 2018. Due to their prematurity and low birth weight they spent 50 days in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) across three hospitals - Bedford, Addenbrookes in Cambridge & Peterborough.

For the majority of their time in the NICU, all three were in incubators with wires, feeding tubes and breathing apparatus attached. They also required a Long Line to provide nutritional fluid. This is a small plastic tube usually threaded into a small vein in the arm or leg until it reaches a point just outside the heart. However, after multiple stressful attempts at this with Spencer, they eventually had to thread this into a vein on the right side of his scalp instead, which meant he could only lay on his left. Billie was a micro-preemie born weighing only 1lb 12oz and as a result we sometimes had to go weeks without holding her as it was too much stress on her tiny body. This meant they both spent the majority of their time laying down, putting pressure on their soft skull bones. 

Due to positioning in the womb Jack has Torticollis (shortening of one neck muscle) and a head tilt, which means he's always favoured laying with his head to the left. 

As a result they have all developed a condition called Plagiocephaly and/or Brachycephaly. Babies skulls are very soft, but even more so in premature babies and where there is pressure for extended periods this can cause flattening of the bones. Brachycephaly is where the back of the head is flat so the head is almost as wide as it is long. Plagiocephaly is asymmetric flattening of skull,  one side is flat and this can push out the front of the skull, cause asymmetric ears, eyes and cheeks.

The good news is that this condition can be corrected, the bad news is that it is not covered by the NHS. This is a controversial stance as the evidence shows that whilst in some moderate cases the condition self-corrects, in cases marked as severe, it does not. Unfortunately Billie, Jack and Spencer all fall in to the 'severe' category as you can see on the pictured diagram so it is important that we act to ensure that they do not suffer in the future, the older they get the more difficult / impossible this condition becomes to treat. 

We have had a consultation with Technology in Motion who specialise in the treatment of this condition who have quoted us £6,075 for the three corrective helmets we need. These will be used for an initial treatment period which will hopefully correct the issues, however there is potential that they may need further helmets as they outgrow the first ones which would then need to be paid for again. 

Having triplets has been hugely rewarding but also hugely expensive - buying three of everything and many specialist items like a triple buggy has been difficult so any assistance that can be offered to help Jack, Spencer & Billie would be most gratefully received. Should we be lucky enough to meet our funding goals any surplus would be passed on to the Headstart4Babies charity to help other children with this condition.

Please visit us on instagram @king_triplets for updates on our story