Need Information on My Infant's Head

I would suggest the book "Baby Beautiful: A Handbook to Baby Head Shaping." I work with several babies doing craniosacral therapy to help correct misshapen heads. I would never recommend a helmet, because there are a lot of risks with that. If you have any specific questions, you can email me at ____@____.com

My daughter had really bad Flat Head Syndrome when she was little. I actually had to take her to a plastic sergeon about it. She never had sergury though. The doc said he didn't want to do anything right away to give it time to heal on it's own...and it did. It took until she was almost a year old but it did. You would never be able to tell now. I used everything to prevent it...nothing worked. Just leaving it alone seemed to work better than anything else. My brothers little girl had the same thing and hres healed on its own as well. Good luck with it though.

My baby's head also got a flat spot on the right side but by the time he was 4 months old or so it had corrected itself. He started rolling over when he was 3 months old so he was able to move around more and he stopped favoring that one side of his head.

Hi N.,

I would see if you can roll up receiving blankets to keep her on the side you need her to and then switch her again. Or even by one of those sleep positioners. Hope this helps W.

My son had the same thing happen. It does take a long time to round back out too. We used soft wedges to help hold him in other positions. You can get those at just about any baby store for under $15. He was probably about a 1 1/2 before we noticed his head was pretty much back to round. He does have a flatter side on the back of his head if you really look, but hair covers it and it isn't something someone would notice unless you told them. No one's got a perfectly round and smooth head :)

hi N., my nephew had the same problem. the drs told my sister that it would correct itself by the time he turn a yr old. it didnt. not fully neway, it looks a whole lot better then what it did but it is still a little flat on the one side. she was also told by them to massage the head to form it back into shape. have you tried that. you have to do it every day to work it into its shape. hope it works for you, R.

My now 7 month old son had the same issue. He was a back sleeper and liked to spend a lot of time on his back under his play gym. Someone reccomended a product called the "Noggin Nest" to us. You can buy it a Babies R Us and its like small pillow that has a hole in the middle to take the pressure off the flat part. Its not for sleeping, but really helped my son during playtime. As soon as he could roll over, he started sleeping on side and tummy, and now his head is almost completely roung again!

Good Morning N.:
I am a RN & a Lymph therapist. I can assist you with this problem! Check out the site www.upledger.com: She would benefit from CranalSacral Therapy as well as lymph therapy.
and call me
Pat D.
###-###-####

I think that your pediatrician may be right about this one. My son lay on his back when he slept at that age, and so the back of his head seemed a little flat, not to mention the loss of hair. He looked like Friar Tuck for about 5 months, but when he started rolling around, changing positions when he slept, and sitting up, his head evened(sic?)out and his hair grew back. I guess it's different for every baby though.

You might want to try a positioner http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=166874011 if you're really concerned, although all the experts say that using these can increase the risk of SIDS. I had to keep in mind that he still had a soft spot and so his skull wasn't completely formed yet, so it will change in time. I mean, you have at least until 12months before the Fontanelle closes up.

Hello N.
My son did the same thing. The baby's head does not get flat overnight is what my pediatrician told me and there fore it won't heal over night. Your baby's head is probably rounding back out but since you see your child every day you just aren't noticing it. Give it a couple more weeks and if it still looks the same have the doctor check her out. I also put a child wedge behind my son's back when he was in his crib and it wouldn't allow him to turn over and lay flat on that side. They sell them at wal-mart, target, and k-mart. Hope this helps.
J.
Mother of ten year old boy and six year old girl

Hi N.,

I had the same problem with my youngest daughter, the doctor recommend me to turn her head as often as possible to the other side, specially when she was sleeping, try one of those wedges to force her to sleep on the other side all the time, you can move her once she is sleeping so she won't know (that is if she doesn't wake up. She is almost 3 now and her head is perfectly normal. Mine was at a point that she wouldn't even look to one side. There is not much you can do rather than switching her to the other side and not to worry to much about it, as soon as hair grows, you won't be able to tell anyway :)
Good Luck!

Mariana Abadie
www.MyKidsFirst.com

I agree with Dr. Amanda... craniosacral therapy is a great idea. I love my craniosacral therapist, and she has really helped my daughter (she is 3 months and was a surprise breech, so there were concerns about her skull bones molding properly). Her website is www.heartofhealing.com.

Yours in health-
Dr. Alyssa

My son also had this problem until he was I think 4 months old, and started to roll over frequently on his own. It will go away gradually over probably 6 months to a year after that. I never tried the sleep wedges, but they are worth a shot if you are really worried about it or it seems severe. I would trust your doc though, babies heads don't completely form untill they are 3 yo.

My daughter had a flat back of her head and finally the ped recommended physical therapy to strengthen neck muscles (she had a bit of torticollis) and she was fitted for a prosthetic helmet to round her head out. She was only in it a few months and it made a HUGE difference!