Flat-headed baby: have I broken my child?

[ManchesterMummy]

Help.

To shut my mother up about DD's flat head, I took her to the GP this morning and he has referred her to a paediatrician. She's 17 weeks old. He started talking about "problems inside" and I'm very worried now.

I know this has come up before but I'd quite like some reassurance that she's going to be okay. Mum thinks we shouldn't put her on her back to sleep but I don't want to!

She seems very bright and is reaching all milestones so far but I'm really concerned now that my baby is damaged!!!

Thanks

Hi - there's a good article about it here www.babyworld.co.uk/information/baby/health/flathead.asp
Basically, the paediatrician will want to see you to see what's causing it, but if it were anything serious, you'd know about it.
Still put her on her back to sleep, but try to put her on her front more during the day, or prop her upright.
You'll probably get a kind of cap thing to put on her to sort it out - she's young enough for that to work really well. Don't worry!

Hi Manchester, I'm no expert at all, but I'm sure you haven't broken her. how irresponsible of the doctor to be vague and get you worried. I don't think having a flat head causes babies any problems, but if it makes you feel better on the "back to sleep" debate, she's 17 weeks and that means it won't be long before she rolls over by herself anyway and will sleep in whichever position is comfy. Then her little head will either unflatten itself or her hair will grow over it, depending on who you believe.
If she's reaching all her milestones, I'm sure she's fine. Do let us know!
Hopefully some other person who actually knows what they're talking about will respond!

i read that its quite common for babies to have flat head. its because they always sleep with head on same side. You should keep putting it to sleep on its back but turn its head each sleep time.

Thanks - she does get tummy time and I often have her upright. We also have a bumbo seat that she loves.

Will see what the paed says!

Gosh thank you all!

Will report back when we've been to the paed in a couple of weeks... She's already got masses of hair that is completely on end and I'm sure it's making it worse!

Have a look here for all the info about flat head syndrome (positional plagiocephaly):
Plagio UK

My ds had a very flat head, and we left it too late to help sort it out by using repositioning techniques. It's not too late for you to help your dd's head shape. We had to put him in a custom-made, and very expensive helmet to sort it out.

You must put her to sleep on her back, but alternate the way her head faces each few nights (2 nights left, two night right, two nights striaght up).

She may have problems turning her head one way. This could be torticollis or could just be tight neck muscles. If she has this, as your GP for a referral to a paediatric physiotherapist. They will show you some easy exercises that you can do at each nappy change that will resolve any neck problems.

It is almost certainly your dd's positioning that has caused this, but there is also something called craniosynostosis, which is early fusion of the sutures (gaps in between the skull plates). The two (plagio and cranio) usually actually produce slightly different looking heads, and a paediatrician will be able to put your mind at rest if you are worried. Again, ask your GP for a referral.

my son had a flat head at his 20 week scan

when he was born i had to lay him on other side normally wedged with a rolled up blanket or towel so cannot roll back on other side then turn reguarly through night

my ds is 2.7 and no sign of flat head now but its nothing you have dine so dont beat yourself up over it

even if hat has to be worn it will sort out the problem

We tried putting dd to sleep on alternate sides, but she always rolled over onto her flat side. It sorted itself out anyway once she started spending more time upright.

I ended up using a goi goi pillow to help with ds's flattening of his head and it improved greatly and is hardly noticeable now

You need to get her checked for torticullus and plagiocephaly as neither of those will sort themselves out and it oyu wait and see and it is something, it is too late.

there are tonnes of threads on this

even if hat has to be worn it will sort out the problem
By cory on Tue 05-Feb-08 18:04:44 unbelievable

Good that you're getting it checked properly. We were insanely worried about DS when he was born. Extremely flat on one side, made worse by bad birth with forceps. I researched and read up and would not leave the midwives or doctor alone about it. We were convinced it was very serious. They monitored it closely but after some weeks there was a difference once we tried putting him to sleep with head on opposite side to the one he favoured. It's all completely normal now, but I don't want to entirely put your mind at ease until it's checked. Just glad to hear you're being observant and caring.

Ds uses a goi goi pillow too. I also took him to an osteopath who relaxed tension in his neck so he no longer favours laying with his head to the left side. We started this at about 2 mths, when we first noticed a slightly flattened skull. Now at 5 mths the shape has greatly improved. I think the pillow and osteopath both helped.

NAB wrote: "By cory on Tue 05-Feb-08 18:04:44 unbelievable"

Which bit is unbelievable, NAB, and which bit made you angry?

The web site provided by NoNickname does state that "mild cases of positional plagiocephaly can improve on their own once a baby starts to gain mobility and spends less time resting its head on hard surfaces" . It's the Great Ormond Street Hospital that says it, so why is it unbelievable? Presumably they know. This is what happened in the case of dd.

Kindly note that I never said the OP shouldn't get her baby checked out. All I did was to recount our experience, presumably one of the cases that GOSH describe as mild.

I get frustrated by the amount of people who say their baby had a bit of a flat head but all is okay now and their hair covers it anyway. If your child has plagiocephaly you have a very small window of opportunity to correct it with the best results. If you wait and see and then it doesn't sort itself out once the baby is moving more and can sit up, generally it is too late to do anything.

Our DD had plagiocephaly and was hypotonic so it was never going to sort itself out because she couldn't sit until very late. It isn't rare to have both conditions but a child can have one without the other.

IMHO flat heads which sort themselves out once babies are sitting weren't true plagio and the baby was always going to be fine.

We had to fight damn hard and then go it alone to get treatment for our DD and it does get me upset at times rather.

My dd also hypotonic and late in sitting, but I sat her in bouncer chair long before then and carried her in a sling a lot, so presumably that's what helped.

I understand what you're saying NAB, I just found your response very curt and focused on your experience.

I had a similar situation on another thread the other day, where lots of people were saying that their babies' failure to thrive turned out not to be anything serious- whereas mine was. Should I have got angry with them, just because their experience wasn't mine? It was upsetting to remember how things were for me and how much harder I had to fight, but I like to think that I still took the pains to respond gently to the other posters, and accept that other people's experience is valid to them. I also had to fight damn hard at the time (to save my baby's life, actually), but it doesn't make me angry with people who happen to mention that they've had a different experience.

I also regularly read threads where people are being reassured about their babies' failure to walk at 17 months. In our case, it did turn out to be the warning sign of a disorder that has left dd permanently disabled, so acting quickly would have been the sensible thing for us to do, but I do accept that this may not be the case for everybody.

Would have understood your response perfectly if I had said that OP shouldn't get her baby checked out, or that plagio is never serious- but I didn't say any of those things.

The quote from the Great Ormond Street seems to show that there are self-correcting cases, and looking at photographs of dd's head, it is clear that she had a very flat side to the head at 2 months, and that this is not apparent in photos of her at 10 months. I did the best I knew at the time for my baby, following the advice of health professionals.

Obviously what I post is going to be based on my experience.

The fact that you said hair would cover it made me feel like you had no understanding of how serious plagio can be and the reprocussions if left untreated.

My whole point is you just can not possibly know whether a flat head is due to baby lying on it all the time or because there are other problems and it you do the wait and see it can be too late.

Lots of people post that their babies had a flat head and are now fine but I doubt very much they had a real problem or else they were lucky. Wait and see is not a sensible option imo if your child has a flat head.

I correct myself, you said wearing a hat would cover it, not the hair.

No, NAB, you are talking about somebody else's posts!!! I did not mention a hat. This is the whole extent of my first post:

'We tried putting dd to sleep on alternate sides, but she always rolled over onto her flat side. It sorted itself out anyway once she started spending more time upright. '

I said nothing whatsoever about what the OP should be doing or about wearing any sort of garment. Please read more carefully in the future.

OMG I am so sorry. My head is all over the place and I must have mixed you up. Apologies.

I realise what must have happened - when I cut and pasted it went on to your name as yours is the next post. An easy mistake to make to be fair.

P.S. I found the hat. It was in bubblagirl's post and it sounds like she was talking about a corrective helmet. So a perfectly reasonable thing to say. She was just telling the OP not to feel guilty, and then pointing out that there are corrective measures out there. Nobody has mentioned wearing hair or hats to conceal the problem.

You need to have his assymetry measured - not circumference. It will help.

Message withdrawn

Maybe not on this post but plenty of others. I read it as a hat, a helmet is acompletely different thing and it would have helped if it had been posted as such. I did apologise.