[redbonec]

Has anyone else here worried that their child's head is flattening on the back? I just started to notice I think this has happened to K. She has always been a back sleeper, until recently, now more her stomach, as she flips.
I am going to ask the doctor about it at her 9 month checkup, which is next month.

It is hard to tell for sure how much it may have changed since she was born--most of the pictures we have of her early on she either has a hat on or I can't see the back of her head anyway--not many side pictues.

I guess today she read my mind. When I peeked in on her sleeping today, she was laying with the side of her head ON the crib bumper, with the top of her head pressed against the crib slats, and her arm was sticking straight out of the crib slat. A lotta good that crib bumper is doing. Well, I guess now K is trading a flat head for grill marks on the top of her head. Maybe this is her way of reshaping her head.

[StorkWatcher]

Funny about the grill marks....

I swear, every checkup paper from our ped the first 6 months had "plagiocephaly" written on it, as our big concern for the ped...... Our son's head just seemed a little off on one side from the beginning. But nothing out of the ordinary that comes from keeping them on their backs, and they have an affinity for a particular sleeping position or favored side to sleep on.

There were a few "exercises" he gave for us to do when the babe was really little, but once they get to turning over and moving around so much, I'm not sure there's a lot to do for the typical and mild cases. Plus, they tend to sleep more evenly on both sides (and in all kinds of positions, with body parts smushed up against any surface, and some sticking out through the crib bars, etc etc)

In more severe cases, there is a helmet the child can wear. I bet your little one is fine, but it's always great to get reassurance from your doctor!

[Vogi2002]

OMG this is so wierd, I just thought about this last night and was worried it would stay this way, he is a complete back sleeper and at 2.5 months will be for a while...I don't want my poor guy to be all mishapen I was going to ask my dr at the 4 month appt as well...Cooper's isn't too bad but I don't know what's bad!!!

[maviskat]

Our ped has always mentioned about avoiding a flat head at our checkups. He says to make sure she gets plenty of tummy time. This is fine if your little one likes to be on their tummy...my Emma hates it and will scream her head off after 2 or 3 minutes. She is almost 5 months and I notice when sleeping she turns her head from side to side now. When younger, I would turn her head to the side when she fell asleep. We put her in her exersaucer more now or in her bumbo to play during the day, so she is not flat on her back as much anymore.
It's funny you brought this up today as I was just checking out the back of her head today!

[redbonec]

Yes, Stork, now is too late I would think for any re-positioning for sleeping, as now she does sleep all over the place. I just wish I'd thought of it before 8 months! I always heard about flat heads, but mostly from orphanages where children are in cribs most of the day, or in families where the children are not picked up much.

Natalie, K was also a complete back sleeper until 7 months. We also had her swaddled, and this kept her on her back. Now I am thinking for the next baby, maybe we should use the sleep positioner and have the baby sleep sometimes on their side?

Mavis, I had tried tummy time also. K hated it too. It didn't do any good for her to just lay her head down and cry. Now that she is rolling a lot, she gets more tummy time, but even now if I put her on her tummy, many times she rolls back over!

I did recently see an ad for a toy for tummy time--it is a spinner that the baby lays on, it is elevated a little off the floor, and the baby is on tummy, but can look down to things on the playmat. Looks good for the next baby!

[Shadowfaerie]

Our son's head is apparently slightly flat on the back right side and our peditrician just said to reposition him with a towel. I mentioned this on another board and people freaked me out a little mentioning the whole helmet thing. I don't want S to end up in a helmet.
Dawn

[Poleczech]

The helmet is for severe cases .... a co-worker of mine had to have a helmet for her son (and it is not just a "helmet" but a helmet made from a plaster cast of the baby's head and has to be made by a specialist.) In her case, she said she didn't know about tummy time and never turned her son, had him sleep on his side, put him on his tummy at all and his head became FLAT. He is now 2 and and it is still somewhat flat because they waited too long to go to the specialist when the plates in his head were already starting to fuse.

The best thing to do is give your baby tummy time, even if it is only a few minutes at a time. My son wasn't fond of tummy time at first either, but it helps to give him something fun to look at like a mirror or you lying on your tummy facing him. Another form of tummy time is having your baby sleep on your chest (also a good bonding experience). You can also lay you baby down to sleep on their tummy during the day for naptime, so long as you are there to watch them (I would never leave him alone). Once they start rolling over themselves, things pretty much just even out.

[rredhead]

Hey!
Jack's head was flat on one side too. We mentioned it to our ped, who said, "Yeah, I noticed that, but if I had a dollar for every kid who came in with a flat-spot on his head..."
He said that for most kids, the head re-shapes itself as they spend less time on their backs, and more time sitting, crawling, walking, etc.
Jack's head still has a little bit of a flat spot, but not so one would notice. The ped said that if it didn't even out by one year, he'd send us to a pediatric neurologist, but that the PN would probably just tell us to come back in a year (at age 2) if it were still a problem. He'd never known anyone who actually had to use the helmet.
My biggest problem with this was the lecture I got from Jack's bmom when we went back for finalization. She was very big on us giving Jack tummy time, making sure his head was held just so in the car seat, etc.

Hope this helps!

[redbonec]

Now that K is not swaddled anymore at night (cold turkey since I forgot the swaddle blanket on a recent four day trip!) she always sleeps on her stomach. So, maybe this will help.

When my niece and nephew came this weekend, I noticed that my niece's head (age 18 months) is flatter on back, but my nephew's (5 years old) is not.

Niece was swaddled for quite a long time as well like our K, but nephew was not swaddled. I keep going back to the swaddling since it really kept her on back for longer than I think it would have, but I definitely do not regret swaddling!

[HBV]

We used that positioning wedge and switched H onto his sides every other night----no flat head.

The wedge deal has a flat foam semi circle at the top, then 2 wedge shaped pieces that velcro onto the sheet so you can adjust them to the baby's position. Target has them.