Flat head.

[NoTeaForMe]

My baby is 14 weeks old and has a bit of a flat head. Will this sort itself out as she gets older? My husband googled it and found some terrible info! (for the record I told him not to google!!)

Please put our minds at rest?!

The NHS book I was given by Health Visitor says that it does sort itself eventually as they grown and move about more, less reliant on lying on their backs. Probably wouldnt hurt to try some different positions though... tummy time? etc.

Good luck xx

Hi there,

Firstly, don't worry - it is sortable! Our DD who is 20 wks has the same thing, but it has got a lot better recently. The flat spot was causing her to permanently look to the right, and we were worried that it was causing her muscles to shorten on the other side. We went to our Dr about it and he said that it would resolve itself naturally. He sent us to the paedeatric (sp?) dept at our local hospital anyway to put our minds at rest, which was brilliant. The Dr at the hosp said it wasn't that pronounced and that the muscles on both sides were fine.

What we found helped was putting a small rolled up towel under her shoulder to make her look the other way.

If you're worried go to your Dr and ask him / her to refer you to the children's dept at your local hosp.

Good luck! xx

Thanks Egon we have exactly the same problem, her flat bit is on the right and I think she does find it a bit uncomfortable to look to her left now.....she does look both ways though, it's not that bad! We have realised that everything is making her look to the right-her bath seat, changing mat, crib and the fact that she likes to suck her right fist!! We have swapped around what we can of these! I was wondering about the towel idea, lovely we'll give that a go! Glad to hear it's sortable! Phew!

My DS had quite a bad flat spot at that age, caused by always lying on that spot and always looking the same way. He was pretty determined to do this and I tried and failed to get him to turn his head the other way. His ears were quite far out of alignment. He's now almost 1y.o. and things have improved to the point that you wouldn't notice unless you were really looking at it. I think that things resolved mostly of their own accord, as he got older he would tolerate tummy time better, then he learnt to sit and grew out of napping (he only has one or two shortish naps a day, if at all). Now that he spends much less time lying on that spot things are evening out well. He sleeps in a whole variety of positions now, like any older child or adult would, though he didn't until he was more like 6 months old so this was the point where his flat spot was at its worst.

Two things I did with him that might have helped - I took him to a cranial osteopath three times, at 4 months, 5 months then 6 months old. She did gentle manipulations of his head and neck. He may have had torticollis from birth. I also bought him 2 memory foam head supports, to take the weight off his head. One is a pillow that he used during the day in his bouncy chair, and on the play gym, the other was a soft head hugger to use in his car seat. The head hugger is particularly good, he still uses it now as it's so comfy and supportive. One thing that didn't work was I bought my DS a bumbo seat to get him sitting up sooner, but he didn't like it so that was a wasted effort.

Our GP referred him to a paediatrician to have him checked out, as there are some types of head shape anomaly which need intervention such as premature bone fusing (very rare compared to the more usual pressure flat spot). She just confirmed that he had no serious problems, and there was nothing much more cold be done than we were already doing.

I'm guessing your DD's flat spot may get a little worse before it starts getting a lot better as she's still a little young for sitting etc.

Good luck!

Bumbo! its really worth it. DS had a very pronounced flat side, and his cousin actually had a star band (corrective helmet) his was so bad. But as soon as DS could, we put him upright and off his head in the bumbo, in a walker bouncer, a door bouncer, tummy time mats, pillows etc - anything that helped him develop neck muscles and kept weight off the back of his head. Now 6 months and looks normal. People used to actually comment on his flat bit, but his auntie today (who hasnt seen him since he was 6 weeks old) gave him a cuddle and announced he has a lovely round head lol. Nothing like an unprompted compliment to help you realise that it's all better now!

We have a bumbo which she likes to sit in now, she's also getting happier on her front so we'll do these as much as possible!

Thanks for the reassurance!

Get your baby's assymetry measured.

You have no way of knowing it will round out and by the time it doesn't it might be too late to do anything about it.

If it is flt because of baby sleeping then it should be okay. If it is flat because baby has plagiocephaly then it won't sort itself out.

There are lots of threads on here.

It won't necessarily resoolve itself. My DS had a flat head that got really bad, the GP was horrified when she saw it whereas I'd been quite relaxed about it because I always thought it would sort itself out... She referred us to the paediatrician but there was a wait for the appointment so I hit google. The word you need to google is "plagiocephaly" I can't remember the name of the website but it had plagiocephaly in it and it was a ".org" and there are loads of ideas on there to help.

In the main what you need to do is keep the pressure of the head as much as possible so the more tummy time, and the more sitting up in bumbo or playnest you can do the better. For DS, because I got really worried by this time, I also bought a special matress called a "sleepcurve" for his cot and a "goi goi" pillow that I used when he was in his pram or bouncy chair or on the floor in the day when I was watching him. He screamed blue murder when put on his tummy so not a lot I could do about that. I also carried him in a sling as much as possible, rather than putting him in the buggy.

It all helped a lot and his head shape is not the first thing you notice about him these days (he's nearly 4) but it is still most definitely not a normal shape and I do regret not doing more sooner because I assumed it would be ok. He was a bit older than your baby when I started all this.

Ps. I should add that by the time we saw the paed it had already improved and he wasn't too concerned about it but we still got referred to physio. By then I had read so much about it I was telling the physio what I knew as much as the other way around LOL. I think I inspired her to research it more because by the second appointment she came back with some new ideas.

Erm.....now I'm worried again! I'll do lots of tummy time and time in bumbo etc but how do I know if it's severe or not. Should I be doing something?

Don't worry, your baby is still young enough to make a big difference, but do get yourself informed. The plagiocephaly support website is a good place to start.

From when I was doing all my plagio research, from memory the things you could do to help are - keep trying to take pressure off the flat spot (try repositioning, use rolled up towel if it helps, carry baby in a sling, use bumbo, door bouncer, baby nest etc.); see your GP for possible referral to paediatrician then maybe onwards to physio; see a cranial osteopath; use pillows/sleep positioners/memory foam widgets (be aware of SIDS advice though). There's always the helmet option if things are really severe, though the jury's out as to how effective these are. I would have gone down this route if my DS's head hadn't improved at all by itself. I do think however that despite all that I did my DS's improvement in head shape was pretty much wholly down to him just becoming more mobile as he got bigger, though I do like to feel like I'm doing everything I can to help!

You can judge the asymmetry yourself to an extent just by looking down from above, you're looking for the difference in position between the flat spot and the corresponding point on the other side of the head (obviously it won't be as accurate as going for a scan, but it's quicker and easier and for sure cheaper than attending a private scanning centre). IIRC an assymetry of more than 2cm is thought to be severe (If you're interested in this you should verify with your own checks, I'm just going by memory here). Also I think your own judgement (gut feel) as to severity is as important as any figure a machine can churn out.

Even if the assymetry remains, at least as a girl she will likely have good hair coverage for most of her life and wont have to worry like boys do about hair loss revealing funny head shape. My boy really needs a hair cut and I think that what remains of his flat spot will become more obvious once it's been done. I reiterate though that his head shape is miles better than it was, and he's still not 1y.o. yet so he still has a lot of head growth to come.

Good luck.

Here is the stuff about prevention. There's a lot of talk about the helmets on the website which I shouldn't think you would need. Although ds doesn't have a perfect shape head now, it's not something that causes me concern any more. It's not that bad. I'm just aware of it in the way us mums are.

You need to get the babies assymetry measured. If you do, then tell me the measurement and I will not how severe it is.

It isn't the circumference that needs measuring.

Hi ImFab, it would be helpful to hear more of your experience of plagio, and why is it you say it's important to have the assymmetry measured, you haven't given any detail above. For example, if the assymmetry was found to be severe, how would this change the course of action against what a parent should do if it was only moderate?

Also as I understood it plagiocephaly was most often caused by baby sleeping/laying on the same spot - called "positional plagiocephaly", which has a good likelihood of improving without major intervention.

Also how would you go about measuring? would a parent have to take the baby to a private scanning centre which would cost £££? When we saw our paediatrician (NHS) for DS's plagio, she never mentioned measuring or scanning his head.

Sorry to single you out like this, I'm just curious as to why you recommend measuring...

I'm pretty sure that my babys flat bit is caused by her sleeping and laying on that side.

She sucks her right fist so turns her head a bit to do that, her changing mat and bath seat were both pit so she looked to the right and she turned to the right in her crib through the night. Does this mean that it is going to be easier to sort out then?

This thread has worried me.....

I am not sure how you could manage it without a scan. The places that do the helmets will measure for nothing though I think.

What has to be borne in mind though is that the helmets cost up to £2K and are not available on the NHS.

So surely the helmets aren't essential? I just thought that as she gets older and spends less time on her back it will naturally sort itself out. But she does need to lay down on her playmat sometimes to have a kick about too.....

Depeneds on your POV. They cost alot so NHS won't prescribe them for what they see as a cosmetic issue essentially. So if you are being cynical it's a cost issue.

However many doctors think the condition does sort itself out and think the helmet people are after making money themselves.

I think it's a tricky one. DS has a flat head and am just hoping it will sort itself out though am repositioning etc where I can.

As far as I can see then measuring is only necessary if you intend to go down the route of getting a helmet fitted, which should hopefully not be necessary in the OP's case, as her DD is still very young and the less invasive options such as repositioning should still work well.

There are not many private scanning clinics in the UK, so as I see it you'd have to go to London or Leeds. My paed told me the reason helmets are not available on the NHS is that they're not proven or effective. FWIW I'm not endorsing her view here, as there are some pretty impressive before and after pictures on the helmet manufacturers web sites, but in my own limited experience my DS's head improved massively without a helmet, so did a friend of mine's DS, and the only child I know who did wear a helmet still had a noticeably wonky head after treatment had finished, though I never knew him before he had a helmet so he may have had a particularly bad case of plagio.

The point is, if you do nothing in the hope it will sort itself out when they are sitting up but doesn't, you then can't do a lot about it and it isn't a cosmetic problem.
Our dd went from 1.7 to 0.3 in 3 months. The helmet was £2500 and we went to Harley Street.

If it does sort itself out then it wasn't plagiocephaly just a flat head from being on their back.

So, sorry to sound stupid then but what is plagiocephaly exactly?!

Like I say I'm pretty sure that my baby's flat head is caused by how she is lying.

Without sounding too cynical of the helmets you don't really hear of babies wearing them and you don't see many children/adults with flat heads do you?!

Well, unless you are extremely tall you don't get to look down on top of peoples' heads.

Google plagio.

Check out the yahoo sites for advice and personal stories.

If you are sure then it is only because she is lying on it then fine. It is a risk you have to decide if you are willing to take. That is why I suggested you have her assymetry measured.

DS1 has a flat spot which was caused by his lying and honestly I wish we had sorted it out when he was tiny.

I saw the GP who reassured me that it would sort itself out and it didn't by which time it was too late to do anything.

DS is gorgeous and the flat spot is not terrible but if he wanted to wear his hair very short it would be obvious.

I don't want to alarm you but I really regret not doing anything.

My DD had a flat head and it didn't sort itself out. Her head is, according to our GP, "rhomboid" However, unless she goes bald, nobody will notice.

It was caused by her constantly turning her head to one side when she wsa tiny. No amount of rolled-up towels or pricey contraptions from JoJoMamanBebe could make her lie flat on her back.

Ask your GP. Things may have changed in the last 4 years since our DD was a baby.