Flat heads - is it quite common these days?

[Cafeaulait27]

Our boy is a very good sleeper and for the first few weeks he slightly favoured one side when sleeping and it’s now still flat on that side and he’s now 8 months. It doesn’t bother us or him but just wondering if it’s quite common now babies sleep on their backs much more?

im quite surprised it happened really as he only slightly favoured that one side, and after a few weeks I’d say he slept pretty evenly turning his head on either side.

he hated tummy time but because of colic and reflux he never spent much time on his back during the day. He was pretty much always held upright by us, in the sling, or on our chests.

as I say I’m not worried at all but I have noticed none of my baby group friends babies have this, so perhaps it’s not that common after all? We think he’s absolutely gorgeous but I guess sometimes it crosses my mind that other people might be looking at it.

I remember being quite worried about my DS flat head, until I saw another couple of DCs in a baby group and realised that his actually wasn’t too bad in comparison. Another few had slight flattening that wouldn’t even be noticeable if they had more hair so it was fairly common I suppose. His cousin was also pretty flat for a time. None of the DC were bad enough to require those helmets -do they still do that?

anyhow DS is now late teens & his head grew to be perfectly normal

My ds had a slight flat head on one size as he favoured on one when sleeping. I brought a baby donut shaped pillow to help and reshaped fine.

Yes, it’s more common. Before the advice to put babies into their backs to prevent cot death it was usual for babies to sleep on their fronts. It also causes delayed crawling hence why ‘tummy time’ is a thing.

The number of babies dying of cot death has fallen massively so the advice is absolutely sound.

All the babies I knew with flat heads were good sleepers. My breastfed babies woke constantly so zero chance of that😂
Most of them grew out of it but sometimes it was a bit more noticeable still while older but when their hair grew it covered it.

My ds10 was like this when very young and tbh I was worried at the time. But it’s not noticeable now at all. Remember the head, like the rest of the body, has to do an awful lot of growing, and over time the flatness tends to correct itself somewhat as the head grows bigger.

I think it became more common when they advised to lay babies to sleep on their backs. My boy had theeeeeeee flattest head I had ever seen. He's 11 month and I can definitely see it rounding out.

This is very unsafe, OP please do not be tempted to do this

@MolliciousIntent oh don’t worry I won’t ☺️ I’m not interested in correcting it, and had no idea these pillows existed but they sound v dangerous from a sids perspective!

@MolliciousIntent we were perfectly fine and used it for a couple of weeks no problem. It was not used unsupervised or for prolonged periods of time and it was made for especially for babies. So we had no safety issues.
@Cafeaulait27 as a previous poster said I think it is becoming more common and in most cases when not severe will correct itself

Pillows are very dangerous and create neck flexion which closes the airway. Even supervised, this is a bad idea.

My youngest child spent most of his first year in hospital.
The doctor said he had one of the worst cases of plagiocephaly he had ever seen. One side of his head was completely flat while the other side had a "normal" appearance.

He's 11 now and you would honestly never know he ever had it! His head is completely symmetrical.

Should add that wasn't the reason he was in hospital.
He just spent a lot of time on bed rest during that first year and didn't sit up until he was a year old.

It probably isn't completely symmetrical. If you were to take a photo from the top down, which just showed the tip of his nose, it would likely show the asymmetry. Two things help.disguise it. Firstly, that you never view your young man from this angle, and secondly that even an 20+ mm asymmetry has a much smaller effect on an adult head than it does on a baby's head. Consider a penny sized dent in a ping pong ball, vs a basketball.

Cranial asymmetry doesn't HAVE to be corrected. As you have seen, once grown, it takes a trained eye and/or the right view to see it (except brachycephaly which you can see in men everywhere!). There aren't any disadvantages to the child. But no one should minimise the distress which it causes parents to see it, and as you can see from other threads parents are driven to using unsafe pillows, or sending themselves crazy with sleep deprivation trying to reposition the baby. The only thing which is safw is Perfect Noggin, and it is also incredibly effective.
www.theperfectnoggin.co.uk

My son had the same flat area on one side, I took him to an osteopath and she worked on the area and the next day turned out his ear was full of gloop and he had an ear infection. It's still slightly flat on that side just a bit. But he's fine now

His head flattening, nor his rotation preference were a result of an ear infection. I don't dispute he had an ear infection but jt wasn't the cause of the rotation preference - that was torticollis.

Yes, flattening will not entirely self correct on the absence of something that shapes the cranium. In babies under 6 months, The Perfect Noggin does this. Once rolling, the PN can only be used under supervision, so it would have to be a helmet. But time and growth will render most flattening unnoticeable. That's a long time to wait for a mum who is distressed by the appearance of her child's head. But it is purely a cosmetic "issue" and hence helmeting, or not, is purely the parents choice.

Okay maybe not completely symmetrical but we all have little imperfections.
What I meant was to look at him now as an 11 year old you would never know that a doctor stood in front of him as a baby and said it was the most marked case he had ever seen.
The point I was making to the OP was that he has never had any problems since.

Absolutely. Almost all flattening, however significant, will become unnoticeable over time, because we look at other adults in the eyes. But to say to the mum of a 4 month old baby, "Don't worry, by the time they are an adult, no one will notice", doesn't take into account the distress they feel TODAY. We shouldn't minimise this. Plagiocephaly really affects some parents mental health - some parents are really, really distressed at the shape. They have the right to choose a non-invasive way of correcting that.

I think it's important that parents have the actual facts. Some doctors say the flat side will "pop out" which is nonsense. Or the parent waits and waits for this magical correction which doesn't come and end up choosing a helmet at 16 months because it still bothers them. There are no medical repercussions to not correcting cranial asymmetry, it is purely cosmetic. So yes, your child is totally fine. I would certainly never say any child NEEDS a helmet. What I would say is, can you wait years for it to be unnoticeable? If not, and a helmet is within your means, then it's a reasonable choice.

Reported. You've posted on multiple threads about the same product today - which looks massively against SIDS guidance anyway.

I was thinking the same thing Yorkshire

I’ve seen the same poster comment three different times on posts to do with flat heads and recommends this website everytime. Strange

Well my priority at the time was coming to terms with him having Down's Syndrome, and then praying he survived his time in PICU, which thankfully he did. The flat head wasn't my first concern. I was a heartbroken mess at the time.

And I disagree that mums are not comforted by other mums who have experienced the same telling them that although distressing at the time it all turned out fine in the end.
I had an emotional breakdown when my son was born with Down's Syndrome 11 years ago. Talking to other mums and seeing how happy their older children were and the fulfilling lives they had was the one thing that got me through.
It doesn't in anyway minimise the distress they feel at the time. It just gives them hope for the future.
My son very nearly died (of swine flu) as a baby and I still have upsetting flashbacks to that time.
Then I have someone telling me I am causing another mum distress by telling them the positive outcome.
I apologise to the OP if it came across that I was minimising the situation (I honestly wasn't). My mental health is not great at the moment either.

@Rosiethecat15
I apologise if that's how my post came across - that wasn't what I was trying to say. I do agree that some mums are comforted by being told that things will all turn out fine in the end - and I have mentioned numerous times that there are no associated issues with cranial asymmetry. Personally, it wasn't helpful to me to know that eventually it wouldn't be noticeable. I wanted it not to be noticeable now.

@YorkshireTeaCup
I did read the Guidance on Posting, and it specifically says that it's OK to include the occasional mention of other websites or products which are relevant. I don't think I have been spamming, and I believe that of the few hundred words I've posted, all have been reasonable, polite and on topic.
Plagiocephaly is a highly emotive topic, but I really think that it should be possible to have a civil conversation about it. I have consistently said it is a parent's choice and everything I have said is scientifically robust.
I will wait to see what the Moderators think before posting again - I don't know how it works, do they post here, or email you, or what?

But for the record, since you mentioned it, yes The Perfect Noggin is safe. There are no loose or soft components, so it is a physical impossibility for a baby to suffocate. The sizing means that when placed in either a cot or a basket, a baby cannot become entrapped. It is firm. It does not position or restrict a baby, beyond the fact that they are on their backs which is in keeping with safe sleep. The rise is 3 degrees, which is nowhere near the 10 degrees which is designated unsafe. And if you understand how baby's heads flatten, you can see how is logical that it works.

@Speedyshoes do you financially benefit from the sale of this product?