Flat Head Syndrome

The only thing I know to do is when you put him to bed prop his head with a blanket or pillow or stuffed toy so it is facing the other direction. And yes it will correct it self some and when he get enough hair you will not be able to see it as well.

A.,
Personally I my child has not had this happen, however, a friend of mine has this with her son. Her doctor also said it would self correct, however the child is now almost 3 and still has a flat head in the back but isn't noticable, nor does his face look out of shape. I do know that there are those helmets that some children do wear to correct this, another friend of mine had her child wear this and it did correct the flatness after several months with the helmet. Her origianl doctor told her it would correct on it's own also but she felt she had to do something about. So there are both situations I hope that helps a little. Good luck.
J.

A., I am a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner who specializes in Neurosurgery. I treat Plagiocephaly, which is what you are referring to as "flat Head Syndrom" IT DOES NOT CORRECT ITSELF. How old is your baby? The treatment is first to take a conservative but vigilant approach to repostitioning. That means that you need to position your baby on his tummy WHENEVER he is awake and make sure that all of his toys, lights, music, activity is on the side that he does not usually turn to. If your son is older than 6 months of age then he needs to be evaluated for a cranial remodeling band. Please let me know if you have further questions. I have to run right now. My email is ____@____.com.

Thank you,

K.

Hi. Without seeing your boy, it could be one of two situations. One that corrects itself as with your pediatrician's advice. If it is this case, you can take corrective measures on your own in how you handle him (carry him/care for him). They may be unpleasant at first, but will help. When carrying him, talking to him or playing with him, hold him so that he has to turn his head to the UN-preferred side. Also, you can also move your car seat in the car, so he has to turn his head in the UN-preferred direction to look out the window. Talk to him, offer food on that side of the body. Lastly, LOTS and LOTS of tummy time is imperative. The second situation is that he may need physical therapy intervention. I would ask for a referral to see a pediatric PT for a thorough evaluation. They work very closely with this type of thing. There are exercises, assistive devices, etc that can be applied. And, PT has a very good success rate with this. I would take a look at your son and see if you see any assymetry to his facial features - does his face, ears, etc look symmetrical? Email me if you need help finding a PT.

You didn't mention his age?????
This method only works before he learns to roll over...
Take two receiving blankets, roll them tightly approximately the length of his back and tummy. Put him to sleep on his side, the non-flat side. If he's really cranky about it, then let him fall asleep then push him over and tuck the rolled blanket/towel to hold him there. You can play around with the tummy one.

I've raised 3 generations of kids and did not have to listen to this 'make sure baby sleeps on his back." I've actually looked up the 'research' on this topic on Med-Line. Ask your Pediatrician if THEY have read the research. It's NOT research, it was only a questionaire asking moms to report on the position of their sleeping babies. Then from this questioning, they ascertained that SIDS was lower in the group of moms who reported putting babies to sleep on their backs.

So Voila! All these flat headed babies now. I believe in rotating babies, from side, to back, to side. I like the side sleeping position, especially after a feeding, so that if they spit up, there's no chance of choking.

I hope I don't receive too many negative emails over my personal experience and preference.
Best of luck!
Jennifer

Hi A.,

My son had a flat head. When my baby was 4 months the doctor had said that it would fix itself and then at 6 months he gave him a referral to Cranial Technologies. We absolutely loved all the staff at Cranial Technologies. The initial consultation was fast, easy and free! My son was diagnosed with Plagiocephally and Torticollis (tightening of the neck muscle). His condition is 100% treatable. My baby wore a DOC Band (Helmet) for 3 months and his head is absolutely ROUND and perfect. We can see a little bit of a flat spot on the top. BUT you have to look for it. check them out at www.cranialtech.com. It is a bit expensive if you don't have insurance to cover. Some insurances won't even cover at all BUT WE FOUGHT OURS AND THEY PAID.

You have gotten some great advice from mothers who have dealt with this. I would like to add that carrying your baby around in a car seat, putting him in a swing and a bouncy seat is not helping. I have read several articles about how this fairly new phenomenon of mothers not actually carrying their babies is contributing to situations like your son's. You may want to consider a sling to "wear" your baby instead of laying him in some device. We see this as normal because everyone does it, but it is NOT normal for a baby's development. Whatever the treatment of your baby's head shape, you may want to get your baby out of all the "seats" and get him upright, the way he is meant to be. Google "baby slings" and you will find many options!

Maybe your pediatricin meant that it wasn't too bad yet and now that you caught it, it will be corrected? I know I try to think on the bright side. If it isn't too bad, you need to start positioning his head in a different position. My eldest son is sorta flat on the back of his head. You can't really tell unless I shave his head. It wasn't bad when I realized I wasn't putting his head is diffent positions when I put him down to sleep.

You need to keep extra vigilant to keep the situation from getting worse. Start laying his head to one side then the other. Of course he is going to move and favor his favorite. Follow some of the advice other mothers have tried.

Remember if it is now too late, you can help. A little flat is not going to hurt him, a lot will. It may be not be perfect but he won't be Mayan Royalty (they placed a board on the baby's forehead to make it flat, consequently forces the brain into a cone/wedge shape.)

When he is sleeping or sitting in a bouncy chair, put a rolled up baby blanket between the baby's head and the side of the crib/bouncy, etc. - on the side that is flat, so he/she cannot move their head to the flat side. I did this w/my baby and it worked. He stopped laying on the one side only and the flatness went away. Good luck! Having your first baby is so cool, but hard too - I remember when....(my first "baby" is almost 7 and trust me, it gets easier the second time.....)

We went through the same thing with our son who is now 5. His head was so flat on his right side that he literally looked lopsided. Our pediatritian said the same thing as yours, but I did bring up the fact that I wondered if he should wear the head "brace" (sorry don't know what its called.) She told us to wait, and sure enough by the time our son was able to turn himself over and sleep on his belly, his head just popped back out. It was amazing. Yes, his head is still slightly flat, but you would never know especially under his head full of hair. Hope this helps.

How old is your baby? My son had the same problem keeping his head on one side, they said he would need a helmet we did not have the insurance for it, when we did he did not qualify for it. He is 3yrd old and his head is a little bit like its lopisided. So like his ears one is where it suppose to be and his other one is little bit down, I would just keep pushing it. Sometimes it does not always fix itself. There are alot of options. You could if hes in a crib or etc have him sleep on the opposite of the crib just rotate that. Alot more tummy time just supervise.

Hi A.,
You're instinct is correct. This is more common than you may think and is absolutely treatable. I would not follow the wait it out advice without getting another professional opinion, preferably from an occupational or physical therapist experienced in treating this condition.
Please call Cranial Tech. as they are local experts in assessment and treatment (they also have a website for more info):
Cranial Technologies, Inc.
1920 E Cambridge Ave, Suite 205
Phoenix, AZ 85006
Phone: ###-###-####
Toll Free: 800-689-3402
Fax: ###-###-####

Your little boy is blessed to have a Mom who follows her instincts and looks for more information. God bless your family:-)

B. Morris, M.S., OTR/L

That is called Positional Plagiocephaly. I cannot believe your Ped would say that. If it is not corrected your child may have to wear a helmet to correct it. It is very important for you to sleep your baby's head in different positions. Every time you put your baby down turn their head to a different side. One time the left, one time the right and the next straight up. Do that in the swing bouncy seat and whatever. Please note if the babies neck seems to be favored turning to one direction. It could be the neck muscles are shorter on one side and need to be gently stretched each day. I would see another Ped if I were you. Your baby's head is soft and very moldable (that was so he could come down the birth canel) and that is why it will flatten if not watched. Once they start moving around and rolling over it is not as big of an issue.
N.
Newborn Care Specialist

When my first daughter was about 6 weeks old I noticed that she always turned her head to one side. I only noticed it because my nephew had the same problem and now his head is severely misshapen. My pediatrician said that it's actually a weak neck muscle and he told me to do a muscle exercise every time I changed her diaper. Hold down her left shoulder while you turn her head to the right side. Hold it for ten seconds and then repeat on the other side. It didn't take more than a couple of weeks for her neck muscle to get stronger and she has had no problems since. I hope this helps.

Hi A.,
Sorry, but I just don't buy into the whole flat-head-flap. I honestly believe a lot of people are making a lot of money off of it, and that makes a little red flag pop up in my (flat) head.

What did we do before head-correcting therapies? How did we survive as a race?

Both my little ones were born with the imprint of my pevic bones on their skulls (can you say, "ouch!"). Believe it or not, neither one still looks like my pelvis (ha, ha)

Everyone in my family has a flat spot somewhere on their heads, and believe it or not, some of us can go out in public other days besides Halloween:)

I hope you can see I'm not trying to tease you. Your baby is already beautiful: you said so yourself. Just have a good laugh, kiss your sweet baby on his wonderful little flat spot, and hope for his hair to grow in soon :))
Lots of love!
T

Hi,
go to http://www.infantheadbed.com

or

http://www.mypreciouskid.com/baby-sleep-pillow.html

I used something similar to the one on the 2nd site, cuz i worried about that for a litle while. My baby has a small head, so I probably had nothing to worry about in the first place, but maybe they can help. You can also google it? There are lots of products out there. BTW the one I bought was at Walmart but if you look at the second site, you would know what to look for when you go.

We had this same problem with our baby girl. I took her to a holistic chiropractor from 3mo. old to 9 mos. old every week. This might seem a bit drastic, but even every other week would be great. There must be something out of alignment in your baby's back to cause him to want to turn one way. If you find a gentle chiropractor that uses applied kinesiology, this is a very effective and gentle method. We avoided the whole helmet thing and she has a beautiful round head. Hope this helps. A.

While my son didn't start with a flat head, he started with the plates in his head being fused together, thus giving him a HUGE forehead and a HUGE bulge at the base of his skull. He had to have surgery at 2 months of age, and we had to be VERY concious of how we positioned him. Just after surgery, his head needed to be rotated every 45 minutes - around the clock. One thing that we found that helped was letting him sleep in the swing for a while, and putting a rolled up towel behind one shoulder so that the was "forced" to sleep on the other side of his head.
You may want to take your child to another pediatrician for a second opinion. The ped in the hospital where my son was born said that he was perfectly fine, though he litterally had a ridge running down his head. Our preferred pediatrician (Anne Garrett at Scottsdale Children's Group) evaluated him at 1 week, and started the procedures for tests and referrals.
Good luck - and remember that it is fixable.

My son had some issues with plagiocephaly. His was caused in utero. I read that sometimes kids with not very tall moms end up with funny shaped heads. Anyway. . . Our pediatrician also thought it would even out on it's own, and it did to some extent. When he was 7 months, he was evaluated by a Physical Therapist and she recommended talking with an orthotist to get another opinion about his head shape. We did, and we ended up doing helmet therapy for 10 months. It really wasn't a big deal and by the time he could get the helmet off himself, he was ready to graduate from using the helmet anyway. Tell your pediatrician that you want a referral to an orthotist (if you need one for insurance purposes). If he doesn't know one in your area who works with infant, make some calls and ask around. Our orthotist had said from the beginning that he was only qualified to do mild cases and he may need to refer us to Phoenix. Thankfully, when he met our son, he could treat him. My son now has a beautifully shaped head. The thing is, this is something you want to treat now while their heads are more mailable (for lack of a better word). Trust your instincts.

Hi!
We have the same issue! I have a 6 month old little boy, and at about 3.5-4 months I started noticing one side of his head was flatter than the other. He always slept on the same side of his head. At about 4.5 months, our pedi. referred us to a Cranial Specialist and they suggested getting a helmet (DOC band) for him. We did not have the greatest experience with the Cranial Specialist (orthotist)... we felt like they were giving us a sales pitch and the selling points were the imperfections in our child. His case is what they called moderate.

My husband and I thought about it for a few days (and prayed about it), and just did not feel right it was the right decision for us. It was also very expensive and not covered by insurance because it is considered cosmetic. I talked to my pediatrician again and told her my thoughts, and she said that she would recommend waiting until he is about 9 months and see how it looked then. She said she read a study recently about the DOC bands and how at 2 years of age, the study showed no difference in most of the children that had the DOC band versus the ones that did not. Therefore, in most cases it will work it self out on its own, but the helmet does it faster. She also said that there are a lot of neurosurgeons that think the helmets are a waste of money because most of the time the head will shape up the way it is suppose to.

He is 6 months today, and I am happy to report that in the last month and a half his head has almost completely rounded out on its own. We started seeing a chiropractor that did some cranial adjusting on him, and we repositioned him as much as possible. Against the recommendation of out pedi., we put a very thin layer of memory foam underneath his mattress pad to make his bed softer. We also put a piece at the changing table and in his carseat. It has worked great for us, but a Dr. will not recommend it because of chance of suffocation. We have a monitor that detects if he stops breathing and we have a camera in his room, and we felt comfortable to do it. It did not make it super squishy, just a little softer. During the day, I put him on his tummy, and keep him off his back unless he is in his carseat or stroller.

I have a friend that did the helmet and she was very pleased with the results. So, whatever you decide... it will all be okay! Just FYI, if you do go and see a orthotist, they will recommend a helmet... so be prepared. They also tell you that there is a very small chance that it will correct itself, and we are proof of otherwise! We are thankful that we did not rush into a decision to put him in it, and waste $3000- and have him be in a helmet all summer (yuck!)

There is a Yahoo group that you have to join to get into, but it has lots of good info. You can look at pics and hear people's stories and thoughts. It is at: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Plagiocephaly

Hope this helps! Many blessings!

IT CAN CORRECT ITSELF. Depending on the severity. My nephew ALWAYS turned his head to the right when he was put down. His ears were even crooked because of it.

There are some things you can do to encourage him to turn the other way. Wear him in a sling type carrier like a Hotsling or a Moby Wrap (there are a ton.) Put him in on your right if he needs to turn left (looking towards you) and visa versa.

Also you can get a BUMBO Baby seat if he is over 3 months and holding his head up on his own. Many of the local therapists use them to help correct the head shaping.

If you are truly concerned, skip the pediatrician and find a Cranial specialist.

Good Luck!
____@____.com

there is a condition called postional plagiosephaly (I'm sure I butchered the spelling). It is basically the flat head syndrome. There is a helmet that your child can wear. My friends child had this. The helmet is very lightweight and gradually corrects the flat head. The child wears it for 23 hours a day. While yes a lot of kids heads do correct themselves, do not settle for that answer. By the time the pediatricion finally listened to my friend, her daughter was too old for the helmet to correct it completely although it did do a great job. If your pediatricion won't listen to your concerns I would get a second opinion.

Follow your instinct! My son was born with Torticollis. The muscles on one side of his neck didn't stretch out when he was inside me. This caused him to keep his head tipped to one side and it was uncomfortable for him to change sides. When I brought it up to my ped. he said it might be Torticollis (I was the one who had to specifically ask him if that's what it was and I only knew about it because a friend of mine went through it with her son). All he did was give me stretches that I was supposed to do, but I was very uncomfortable with messing with a newborns neck like that. I demanded a refferal to a pediatric physical therapist. She said I was right and we started with her immediately. Torticollis can cause a lot more problems than a flat head. Ie. poor muscle tone, vision problems, jaw problems, etc. My son did end up having to wear a helmet to correct the flat spots on his head, but it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be! Your son may not have Torticollis, but it's worth it to get it checked out and get it corrected right away! If you end up needing a helmet, check out Hanger. I live in Sierra Vista so we had to drive to Tucson for it, but it was worth it. I don't know where you live, but the places I heard about in Phx. aren't as good as Hanger. Unless they've changed since my son had to have his, the process that Hanger uses to create the helmet is a lot less traumatic on you and the child. Hanger used a computer to map my son's head and make the helmet. From what I've heard about some of the places in Phx., they have to take a plaster cast of the child's head. If I were you I would ask to see a pediatric physical therapist and go from there. One thing that helped us a lot is called a Noggin Nest. It's made by Boppy and we got our's at Babies R' Us. It's great to use in the car seat, swing, and bouncer. It keeps the pressure off of the back of your baby's head. Good luck with everything!

my son had the same thing- I would push your dr a little more- we got exercises to streach the neck muscle & did some positoning to increase head turning- but since it was kind of late, we had to end up getting a correction DOC band ( a helmet) so the sooner you work on it the better- I wish someone would have told me- my dr was like yours and didn't worry until we kept telling our concern- good luck

We went through the same thing with our son! There is more that can be done! My son ALWAYS turned his head to the left from the time we first brought him home from the hospital. I mentioned it to my dr. at about 7 weeks. They gave us exercises and refered us to physical therapy! The condition of the neck that he had was called tortacalis (not sure if spelled right.) We did PT for about 6mos. It helped emensly! However we did get a referal to Cranial Technologies from our Dr. and we also did a DOC band. (a helmet looking device used for reshaping). It all seemed scary at the time, but very necessary.And our son responded to all of it very well, no problems at all! Our son has a beautiful round head (it had gotten very mishapen from always laying on one side!!)
Of course your sons may not be to this extent, however, we did have to kind of keep on top of our Dr. and ask questions. If you do end up going the PT route, it can be hard to find a PT who works with babies. We used Spooner Physical Therapy near Banner Estrella Hospital. They could at least answer questions I'm sure. And Cranial Technologies was AMAZING! I hope this helps a little and gives you some reassurance that it's not just you dealing with this! Our son is 2 now, and no issue or sign that he ever had any issues with his neck muscles or head shape! =)

You did not mention your son's age, so I assume he is young--babies heads are alog like cartiledge (the bone in the nose) if you stroke his head while you are holding him, it will help it to form better.

4 kids experience...

I noticed that my daughter's head was getting flat at around 1-2 months. I also noticed that she would always look to the right. (resulting in the flat head while she was sleeping) I asked our ped. and it turns out she had torticollis, which is damage to the neck muscle preventing her from moving her head. This can happen during child birth, or even in the womb. It's more common than I thought. Luckily hers wasn't very severe and a few appointments with a physical therapist corrected it. You may want to ask your doctor about it.

Hi A.!

I totally understand you dilemma. Our daughter who is now 9 years old still has a flat head on the backside from sleeping on her back. I am so thankful that her hair hides her "frankenstein" head, my poor baby. I wouldn't count on it fixing itself as the physician said so I would definitely take some measures to help diminsh the amount of time he sleeps on that side. Allow the child to nap on you lap, swing, bouncer or maybe roll a blanket up like a worm and place the baby on the opposite side he is used to and place the rolled blanket along side the infant to keep him from rolling to the other side. Of course, use your best parental discretion as far as safety goes. Believe me, had I known her head was not going to "fix itself" I would have done more to prevent her from just sleeping on her back. I know it sounds vain but flat heads are not very aesthetically pleasing. (HA).

Hope this helps.
A.

We did cranial banding (helmet) with our son and we started looking into it when he was 3 1/2 months old. It is very expensive but I felt it was worth it. We used Cranial Technologies in Phoenix even though we are in Tucson and it was worth the weekly drive. I don't know how old your child is but we started to notice it at his 3 month appointment and by 4 months old it was extream but we were also able to resolve it in 8 weeks. Feel free to send me a note if you have more questions.

My son had that problem too. I believe that it was caused from him only wanting to sleep in his swing. I had noticed it at around 6months and his dr too said it will fix on its own. I had him see another dr in the ped office at his 9month check up and she reffered him to the cranial specialist at phx childrens hosp. I would ask to have your son see another pediatrician for a second opinion.

It’s great to hear you are working so hard to address this issue! Plagiocephaly or "Flat Head Syndrome" does NOT always simply fix itself-The best way to prevent/correct flat head syndrome is to keep infants moving their heads as much as possible so they don’t start to favor a particular spot, as newborn heads are extremely soft. Periodically changing the position of the baby’s head so that they don’t begin favoring a certain area can also help to reduce the risk of developing flat head syndrome.When approaching and feeding him, alternate the direction from which you come, encouraging him to turn his head in a different direction each time. Another technique is to place interesting and stimulating toys in new locations around his crib/ room so he will have to turn his head in different directions depending on where the toys are. Finally, try massaging his neck muscles when he is relaxed to help him stretch both sides of the neck equally. You can also visit a physical therapist.Continue being diligent, and visit https://www.facebook.com/DrJaneScott for more information and to join the mission to end plagiocephaly!

A.,

I know that this question is a month old but I just wanted you to know that my daughter is now 7 months old and can hold her head more straight now, you see when she was 2 weeks old she was diagnosed with torticollis also. We were and still are very aggressive with the treatment. We do the stretches; don't forget there are 2 sides to her neck the one that is "bad" and the one that compensates the bad side. You need to work all the muscles on both sides! Also my daughter has been seeing the same Pediatric Chiropractor since she was almost 3 months old. Dr. Laura Shoemaker of Albuquerque, NM is the best, we have seen so much improvement in our daughter. As to the flat head we to were worried about that, we made her lay on the side she was not, rolled a blanket and wedged it up to her to help keep her where you needed her to lay on. It is working and it does take time, alot of time her skull is still plyable thankfully. Let me know what is happening I would like to hear from you. Not many people notice torticollis as a diagnosis in babies so they go thru infancy with it into toddlerhood and then wind up having the z cut surgery to correct it so that they can hold their head straight!!

Hi A.!
My daughter's pediatrician recommended we see a pediatric neurologist for her "flat head" when she was about 7 months old. We had trouble with insurance (this problem is called "cosmetic"), and so chose to see a holistic chiropracter. We paid out of pocket, but it was much less expensive than the cranial helmets often recommended. The dr. used cranial-sacral massage and manipulation for about three months, 1-2X week start to finish. The results were awesome and immediate. Because of the pressure on her skull because of the displacement, her palate had become flat instead of arched and resulted in pain and difficulty in sucking (i.e. nursing!) Once she was treated, that fixed itself and her feedings became so much easier and less dramatic for us both! So many of my concerns about her were figured out with this one issue being finally addressed! Luckily babies are still malleable, and you are noticing this now! My daughter is now 4 and still has a flat spot on her back right side, but it is purely cosmetic and has not hampered her developement, growth, or intelligence in any way! I VERY highly recommend the doctor we used. His name is Brett Brimhall and his office is in Mesa. His email is ____@____.com and their website is www.brimhallwellnesscenter.com. His speciality is actually with the cranium, and he loves to work with infants. Hope this helps!
L. W

This is called Positional Plagiocephaly... It sounds like your baby may also have torticollis, which is tightness of the neck muscles. My son had a VERY flat head on the right side. We had him fitted with a Doc Band 3 months ago and now you would never know he ever had a problem. He actually goes in for his last visit tomorrow. We go to Cranial Technologies Inc. It is in the Rosenberg Building at Phoenix Childrens Hospital. This is their web site:

http://www.cranialtech.com/

There is a ton of information there.

Most cases DO NOT resolve on their own... ask for a refferal from your doctor and have the baby evaluated. I would love to know how things turn out and if you would like to see some before and afters of my son just get me your e-mail and I'll e-mail them to you. Best of luck T.