DD has a misshapen head.

[newchronicles82]

Panicking - Should I be worried?

Basically it's misshapen and flat on one side. I have only just noticed although now I have it is very noticeable if that makes sense. It may have just come about recently I really don't know :-(

Her head is flat on the side she naturally sleeps on. She does spend most of her waking time sat up in her bumbo or laying on her other side in my arms.

Is it normal and something that will right itself or should I see a specialist?

DD is 6 months.

Any words of wisdom or experience greatly appreciated.

My DD (7 months) is the same, it was only me that noticed it everyone else said it looked normal. The 1st visit from the HV and she asked right away if my DD lies on the same side!

Now that she has hair I don't notice it tho

Thanks for your reply.

What advice did the HV give? Has it improved over time?

My dd has quite a significant flat head.. Very worried looks from hvs etc when she was a baby.. She's now 18mo, totally fine, and she has hair.. You can't even see it's flat until her hair is wet! If your worried go to the docs and they will give t a once over but it's moreso cosmetic

(And don't bother with those stupid flat head pillows, did bigger all for us!)

Don't worry, both mine were horribly misshapen and at one point I wouldn't leave the house without a hat on them

They are both very beautiful & in porportion as adults!

The HV suggested that I put toys in the cot/Moses basket so she had to turn her head to see them, I was also told buy a bumbo seat so she was sitting up more. She said too that when DD went for a sleep to try and turn her head but that never worked and only resulted in her turning it back the second I moved my hands away.

She has thick dark hair now so the only time I can tell is when I wash her hair and I stand looking straight down on her head.

And now that my DD can roll about her favourite postion to sleep is her tummy so at least her head won't get any more out of shape

Mostly they settle, but if you can turn her over once asleep it might help. Or look at a different mattress. Or if money allows we used a lambskin in the cot under the sheet to reduce the firmness of the mattress.

This is the nhs plagiocephaly info.

My ds was the same, now he is 14months there is no difference. He has always slept on his left side from birth. Despite trying

It will sort it's self

If you co-sleep change which side of baby you sleep on. I really worried about my ds getting a flat head, I changed sides each night and used a sling most of the day or held him. Again I changed sides and make sure he didn't have pressure on the same point of his head.

I'd never heard of babies getting flat heads until I joined MN.

Seems to me to be just another unnecessary thing to worry about.

DS1 had a flat head and we got a helmet from ahead4babies. If you search MN for flat head or plagiocephaly you should find a bunch of threads. Helmet treatment is controversial here - mostly due to cost and varied results but was very successful for us and I don't regret spending the money at all.

My ds is now 2.5 with a completely gorgeous and normal shaped head. At 6 months his head was pretty much wedge shaped. It was severely misshapen and flat.
It just righted itself as soon as he was up and about.
We did get a memory foam wedge to us under his head while he was laying down (not asleep) and did lots of tummy time, but what made the difference was him starting to walk/crawl so he didn't spend any time laying down anymore.
Don't worry, it'll sort itself out.

DS3 had plagiocephaly. He was the smaller twin and was not able to move that much towards the end of the pregnancy. His skull wasn't flattened exactly, but his face and ears were shifted by a few degrees from where you'd expect them to be. So if you looked down at the top of his head with his nose at 12 o'clock, his ears were definitely not at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock.

It improved somewhat as he grew, and he has curly hair that isn't cut short, so it isn't obvious when you look at him.

Now that he has many of his adult teeth, we can see that the asymmetry has affected his jaw, but hopefully orthodontics will help.