Flat head!

[EvieBear]

Hi
I have a 7 month old and she has a flat patch on one side of her head, I'm getting nervous about it - what can I do to try to correct it? Has anyone tried the special pillows out there? Are they any good?

Thanks!

My son had a flat head on one side so I took him to see a cranial osteopath and after a few sessions over a period of a few months it was reshaped. I did also use one of those pillows but not sure how much help it was.

You need to get a diagnosis and his assymetry measured. There are loads of threads on here about it too.

Since the back to sleep campaign started, all little ones are getting flatheads in the early months. A frightful american company has started a media blitz about it, saying plagiocephaly (flat headedness) can be cured by a crash helmet thing, which only costs upwards of £1500+. They show lovely before & after pics of flat headed kids rounded out beautifully. Which is of course complete hooey. My ds was born with congenital muscular torticollis, basically the right sternomastoid muscle by his ear was shortened and so pulled down his face and skull. By eight months he had a wedge shaped head & looked very disfigured. He had the op to release the muscle (thank god for Alder Hey) & by his 1st birthday had only a slight flattened bit. He was 5 in december and has a lovely round head now. The team of surgeouns we saw told us people are being unnecessarily frightened by the flat headed thing and that childrens heads will eventually round out once they're moving around.
Pet peeve sorry, get it checked out if there's no reason for it, but don't get sucked into paying to have it fixed.

Hi,

My DD was found to have plagiocephaly when she was about you DD's age EvieBear. In her case, she was symmetrical.

I went to the GP initially who referred me to the world's most tactless paediatrician. She seemed to think that we'd been referred because of the size of DD's head (on the large size, yes, but in proportion with height at least). I do understand why it's important to monitor this as it can mean something serious, so DD had to have an ultrasound on her skull. In the end, paed just said "she had a big head". The also check to make sure that the bones haven't yet started to fuse, otherwise obviously there will be no more movement.

Anyway, she's now 2.3 and yes, the back of her head is perhaps a little less rounded that maybe it should be, but it's rounded out a lot over the past 18 months or so and I read somewhere that it can take up to school age to look alomst normal, so that's fine. And developmentally there's absolutely nothing wrong with her.

I was really not wanting to see the GP at all, but I would: as mrswarthog says, it may be torticolis.

Get her checked to make sure there is no reason for her favouring one side...dd (18months now) had torticollis.

She had quite severe positional plagiocephaly (flat head) because of the torticollis. This was discovered at 5 months. The physio showed me some exercises, which weren't nice to have to do as it meant holding her head to one side for the count of 10 3x a day! But they helped to loosen her muscles & the pp started to correct itself almost straight away. I had to try to stop her sleeping with her head to her favoured out of habit & it took some time. This involved repositioning her head as she slept.

At 18 months she has 1 small flatter patch on the side, but her face is back in alignment & unless her hair is wet, you cannot see that little flat patch. I am amazed at how easily it corrected itself, just as the physio said it would.

There is (not to alarm you) a syndrome (maybe not the right word, but it is 5am here!) where the plates in the skull fuse too early, which causes flat head.

So please do try to get a referral to a paed and/or physio to make sure you know what you are dealing with.

Do not use a pillow against advice, I use a positioner, but it went around dd's waist (stopped her rolling & being able to lie on her favoured side) & I removed it before I went to bed.

My 6 month old also has a flat patch on his right side. We've been taking him to the cranial osteopath for about two months and I can't say it's made any visible difference. Knackered76 - how many sessions did your DH have before you saw improvements?

DS1 had a flat head on one side and still has (he's 4 now). We gnashed and worried about it when he was a baby, as you do, but once his hair grew we stopped noticing it and now don't give it a moment's thought.

I wouldn't worry about it, personally, though you could try the pillows to see if your DD can vary the way she sleeps.