DS has horrid flat head on 1 side, which has pushed his ear forward, his temple and ....

[mppaw]

today I spotted that his cheek looks more pronounced than the other side.

I know this is common due to laying DC's on their backs to reduce the risk of cot death, BUT.....should it really be pushing one side of poors DS's head forward ? Am worried that he is going to look really lop sided, well look more lop sided than he already does.

Also, what do you think happens to their brain when the back of the head goes really flat? Only asking this as DS is SOOOOO miserable that am trying to find a reason for his sadness and anger.

[sherby]

I think that this is quite common these days, but there are things you can do about it.

DD had a very flat spot on the left side of her head, we took her to a craniel osteopath and after 3 treatments it popped right out and you would never have known it had even been there.

I know some people use those helmets, but I will admit I know nothing about them. You can try to turn there heads when they are asleep, but this never really worked with DD.

DDs turned out to be because she had tight muscles in one side of her neck and so always slept with it on one side.

They loosened them off and did some gentle manipulation on her head and it worked out lovely.

[muffle]

How old is he? I've known 2 little girls who had this as babies - completely lopsided heads with one ear way round at the front, asymmetrical face shape etc. - and my DS's head while not wonky was flat as a pancake at the back. Now all these children are 3/4 and their heads have just evened out by themselves and they look normal.

[mppaw]

DS is 18 weeks old.....

DD who is 3 always slept with her head completely to the side, so always had a lovely shaped head, but I saw within the baby group some of the others heads were going flat, but like you say, you look at them now and they have evened out.

May well re-visit the cranial osteopath and see if they can re shape it.
I say re-visit as DS had a few treatments and he used to get really cranky, actually used to get MORE cranky, after the sessions so we stopped.

[SoupDragon]

My personal view is that this is not solely due to the back-to-sleep campaign and more to do with the cumulative effect of all the ways babies now rest their heads on firm surfaces - car seats, prams, rocker chairs etc. DSs both spent a fair amount of time in these and had flat backs to their heads, which sorted themselves out with no intervention. DD spent a lot of time in a pouch sling made from fabric and she had the most beautifully shaped head throughout, despite having been put on her back to sleep.

Using a sling rather than pram/carseat etc may help. A visit to a cranial osteopath / your GP is worth it though to rule out any underlying problem.

[mppaw]

Agree with you soupdragon....he does tend to spend a lot of time on his back, on his play mat, cot, car seat etc...so this is all contributing. I think I might ask the GP about it again next time I am in, he seemed to dismiss it last time.

He is desperately trying to roll over at the moment so I have been laying him on his tummy for short periods of time during the day, so hopefully this might help a bit.

[angel1976]

Mppaw - My DS had a very flat head on one side since he was little. His head was also completely tilted to one side. We were brushed off by the GP, HV etc saying it's very normal at his age etc. We finally took him to a specialist at 4 months old and he took one look at him and diagnosed torticollis. He was referred to have physio and we were shown exercises we had to do for him 3X a day to 'stretch' his neck muscles. Hw was finally discharged at 11 months old. You can still see that he holds his head with a bit of a tilt and his head is still flatter on one side than the other but it's almost unnoticeable. From what the specialist told us, the earlier the intervention is, the easier it is to fix the problem. IMO, you need to push for more intervention/help. If I looked back at some of the photos of DS at 4 months, his head was literally hanging off one side in some of them and I cannot imagine how I could look at that and think it's normal? Good luck!

[angel1976]

Trust your mummy's instinct!

[Vamonos]

Don't know if your DS is of a suitable age, but I used one of these mattresses for DD as she had a bit of a cone head as a result of ventouse - no idea if it was the mattress that did it, but the cone disappeared! She always slept well on it anyway.

sleepcurve mattress

[mppaw]

Thanks Angel....

He has been diagnosed with central hypotonia, which I believe is to do with the signals from the brain to certain muscles are slower than normal, but will catch up by the time he is 6 months.
This was spotted as he really struggles and still does to support his own head...he also struggles controlling his arms/hands.
He still does not hold things properly, still hits himself in the face with his hands etc.

Have got a follow up appointment next saturday so will get the Doc to check out his head.

[angel1976]

Mppaw - So sorry to hear that. I know it's really hard but when I think back of how DS was when he was so little, so helpless and see how far he has come now and it's so hard to believe I used to worry so much. Ok, ok, I still worry lots . But nothing like I did when he was little. As your DS gets older, he will learn to control more and hopefully some of his problems will get ironed out then. It doesn't hurt always to push the doc to do a bit more... I think we as mothers are so used to having doctors dismiss us for being paranoid. I finally took DS to A&E after days and days of him being so unwell and was so relieved to hear the GP on duty tell me to take him back to A&E if he doesn't improve and how I will know best as his mummy! I was so to hear that as I have been so used to health professionals telling me I worry too much as a first-time mum. Good luck with your appointment next week.

[mppaw]

Even though he is DC2, I think I have been treated as a nurotic mother that worries too much, but I have said since day 1 that something is not right with DS. Hopefully I will be proven wrong and he will be grow in to a lovely little boy.

Thanks for the kind words Angel.

[angel1976]

We will always worry about our LOs won't we? Take care and good luck once again.

[PacificDogwood]

mppaw, is this of interest?

I am not a great fan of the helmets, it just seems cruel and unnecessary for something that will correct with time (and sometimes physio/sacral osteopathy treatment ). And I have to admit, I am always a bit sceptical of a "treatment" that costs lots of money....
Good luck.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

I almost hate to post on this thread as I don't want to worry you.
But the description you made of your ds's face seeming lopsided sounds like my niece, she was born with two of the pieces of her skull fused before she was born (don't usually fuse till the skull has finished growing I think) so the head can't grow on one part, and the rest carries on growing so the face looks distorted.

My niece's face looks sort of 'twisted' but the various plates can fuse in different places in the head so all the children that have this don't have the same type of features.

It is perfectly treatable though and best dealt with before about 18m iirc.

I feel really bad putting this on your thread I really don't want to worry you unecessarily.

My nieces was recognised by a midwife who was familiar with the condition, but when I was pg with ds2 later and trying to find out if it was a family-inherited condition I found a lot of health professionals weren't aware of it.

I can't remember what the name of the condition is but could have a google to see if I can find links about it?

[KayCee10]

My LO has/had a flat side on the back left. I never thought anything of it until my dad commented and then I googled it and it was the worse thing seeing all these kids ending up with helmets. His right ear looked like it stuck out further than the other one. Both the paed. and HV said it was fine (and like flib said checked his fonatalle to see if it hadnt fused early). So I started repositioning him (making him look the opp. direction, keeping him upright in a bumbo/jumperoo in the day so no pressure on his head, and I bought a goi goi pillow to put under his bed sheet at night. Tried turning his head but he ended up on the side he preferred.
DS is now 9 months old and the repositioning has done the world of good, its very very slightly flat still but I am confident his will round out.
You have detected your Los flat head at an early age so take him for a check up for ease of mind (and if you aren't confident in the answer get a second opinion like I did to be on the safe side) x

[PacificDogwood]

Flibberty, what you are describing sounds like "craniosynostosis" rather than "plagiocephaly" which is much more common.
But I agree, mppa get your child checked out and looking at repositioning advice might help in the meantime: mainly lots of tummy time for baby, not too much time on hard surfaces ie car seats/floor/pram on back and in cot encourage baby to look the other way away from affected side. Sometimes placing them head to footend can encourage them to look the other way IYKWIM.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Yes thats it I couldn't remember the name of it.
I'm just trying to say that if the child has craniosynostosis but hasn't been seen by a health professional who knows the condition... then cranial osteopathy and helmets won't do any good.

mppaw, have you seen your gp with your concerns over your baby's head? Can you ask them to check to at least rule out craniosynostosis?

my niece needed a scan to check whether the skull was pressing on the brain.

Having seen it in my own family I know its taken very seriously by the medical profession so there is no harm in checking with the gp even if just to rule it out.

I've seen children with heads that are flat in places from sleeping etc and my niece doesn't look anything like those.

[LifeofByron]

Mppaw - I'm really sorry to hear about your DS. My DD has a very flat head across the back, just positional plagiocephaly though. I noticed it at about the same age as your DS. I got really, really worked up about it- especially after googling as others have said, and finding out about the helmets etc. Fwiw, in addition to being totally obsessed with keeping DD off her back, I've been using a Goi Goi pillow from here
I'm sure there will be various views on them, but I think it's working for us. DD is now about 6.5 months old and I can see definite improvement in the flatness (especially when I look back at photos etc). I wish you all the best with your DS.

[EachPeachPearMum]

Repositioning might work- 18 weeks is still quite young.
One of these would help, as he won't be ablt to roll out of it, but you could use rolled up towels under his back/shoulder on the opposite side to the one you want him to use. This has worked for my DS (13wo) but repositioning did not work for my dd (now 3)

I have to say, I was extremely disappointed with sleepcurve mattress- DS still developed plagiocephaly on it which isn't supposed to happen.

We use a goigoi too- for all changes, in pram, baby bouncer, etc. That coupled with just not laying him down much really helps- he is pretty much back to bounds of normality. (no-one has a perfectly spherical head!)

As Soupy says- slinging will prevent it worsening, though by 18 weeks it may well already be quite bad tbh. This could be a good option for you though, as I'm guessing he will be late to sit up by himself, so probably rules out using a bumbo or similar sitter. (sorry- I don't know anything about his condition, so forgive me if I'm mistaken)

Craniosynostosis is very rare, but can be diagnosed very quickly once you are seen by a paed- your GP can refer you.
The misery sounds as if he may have torticollis- GP can confirm/dismiss this, and can give you physio exercises to do with ds each day to improve his use of his neck. You may be able to tell though- dd would whimper if you even touched the side of her neck which had the tort.

I have to say I know several children who had this as littlies, and they haven't grown out of it- it is still noticeable, though less so than when they were tiny. Having had a child with plagio, I am much more sensitive to it though, so I spot people with plagio and brachyephaly all the time- even adults, especially when you're sitting behind them on the bus.
My dd's ears were pretty far out of alignment.

[hellsbelles]

My DD had a really really flat heat on one side - as if someone had ironed it! I started to notice it suddenly at about 6-8 weeks. My dr referred me to a consultant - he checked there was nothing underlying wrong and just suggested re positioning (but wanted to keep an eye on her every few months). I ended up trying a lot of the things the ladies on here have already suggested....I changed round her changer position so she lay on her non flat side - I always put her play gym toys on that side too to encourage her to lie that why, I did loads of tummy time (though she hates it) and held her in a sitting position as much as poss...I got a goi goi pillow - which I use on my arm for her to rest her head on when she's feeding, plus on her changer and in her pram (i.e. any time I'm actually able to watch her as I'm too paranoid about SID's to leave her to sleep at night on it. We have made regular visits to the cranial osteopath as well. And finally we got the sleepcurve mattress - which I believe has made the biggest difference (so sorry to hear it didn't work for eachpeach).....all these measures combined have worked so brilliantly. From having a really weird flat (and cone like) head - you really wouldn't know it now unless you looked very closely (she's 17 weeks now). So I would definately go to your dr to double check it's just a positional thing and if it is then you may well be able to see a big improvment with those small measures!

[mppaw]

DS has been using his goi goi pillow for about a week and we think there has already been a slight improvment, along with lots of tummy time, sitting up etc...he seems to sleep so much better with his pillow aswell.

Will still get GP to check him over when we go.

Thanks for all your advice and help