14 Week Old--flat Spot Is Very Bad

My baby was a helmet kid. It seriously is not a big deal at all! Babies don't even care about the helmet. From the first day mine wore hers, she thought nothing of it. Just know that the younger the infant, the quicker it is to fix. My baby was put in hers at 10 months old, which is considered late, so she was in hers for about 6 months vs. the younger babies who where theirs like 8 weeks.

Right now you can still do a lot to avoid a helmet or at least minimize treatment time.
The first thing is to stop keeping him contained during the day. Toss the bouncy or swing, minimize his time in a car seat to only during the actual ride. Get a baby carrier that allows you to wear him hands free. The less time he spends laying on his head, the better. If you want to put him down, give him tummy time.

For his bedtime, try changing his position, so he looks the other direction.
Flat spots are almost always caused by babies spending too much time laying down or in a seat.
Good luck.
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/positional_plagioc...

My son was the same way. Really encourage him to turn his head to the other side. My son's head is still flat and probably won't curve out all the way, but he didn't need a helmet. It did shape itself out a lot as he got older, just not all the way. He'll just never be able to shave his head, LOL

ANYWAY, we would put his bouncy seat or whatever turned to the side, so if he wanted to check out what I was doing, he'd have to turn his head to the side he did NOT prefer. We also massaged his neck and shoulder muscles to help loosen up the tightness so it was easier for him to turn his head the other way. As soon as he can hold his head up, get a Bumbo... this helped a LOT because he was up and able to look around better than in anything else! When my son was sleeping, it was a lost cause... he STILL turns his head that one way!

My friend just finished the helmet treatment on her son. He only had to wear it for 3 months, and the results were amazing!! She said it was a tough decision, but now she's grateful she did it. I know a helmet seems like a scary solution, but I'm sure if you did it, you'd be grateful too. Good luck!

Also at night try putting him with his head at the opposite end of the crib, especially if it is against a wall. Most babies like to look out. We have a four month old with a flat spot and our doctor said even at this age they usually correct themselves as long as the soft areas are still there. He also said they don't need a helmet as often as they used to think they did. I have known one kid with one and he did great.

Make sure to take him out of his car seat/stroller when you go out. Get a carrier to wear him in instead so his head isn't pressing up against the hard plastic. Hold him more instead of putting him in swings, bouncy seats etc. Keep him off his head as much as you can. Use the carrier inside if you need to get things done. Again, keep him off his head as much as possible. When he is lying down alternate which side you turn his head toward, although I would lean a little heavy on the opposite side of the flat spot for a couple days to shift things back. We bought sleep positioners that had a memory foam "pillow" that they would lie on when we put them down. My second and third children didn't get a flat head at all. My first got a very mild one that corrected itself very quickly.

In the 'old days' when my kids were babies this was a rare thing and now it's so common. I think it's from no tummy sleeping, all of mine slept on tummy but one, and from nobody carrying their child but carrying around heavy car seats with a baby in it. The baby needs to be held and touched too and those carriers don't do it for me. I would put him on his tummy to sleep during the day when you can check on him and then each time you lay him down turn his head to the opposite side he last slept on. Of course when he can turn over and turns his head a lot that is not going to help but tummy time will until then. Then I would try to carry him when you can and not lay him in the seat as they are in car seats enough in the car. Also lay him on his side to sleep some and rotate that. When he can sit up you can be sure he sits propped with something around his body, not behind his head, so he is not laying on something with his head. That is of course until he learns to sit unattended and then he'll be fine. I would work very consistently on this. I hope he won't need treatment. But at least they have help for it most of the time.

My son had a very bad flat spot too, when he was that young he had bad reflux and had to be positioned up while sleeping (in bouncer) so his head would kinda lag on the side, this created the muscles in his neck to tighten on one side (eesh right) and a big flat spot on the other side, it didnt matter what I did, or propped his head with, he'd manage to sleep on the same spot. So I finally made a command decision to move to the crib, and we started putting him to sleep on his side. I got some rough night sleeps worrying if he rolled over, and I was all about "nothing in the crib" until this moment, and I rolled some towels on his sides to hold him still and I'd say within 2-3 weeks it was gone (mostly) his neck is great and his flat spot gone. :) hope to help

My kiddo had a very flat head on one side. I took him to a craniofacial surgeon to evaluate it. He said 99% of cases resolve without treatment, but that you won't start seeing improvent until the kiddo starts rolling over. He recommends making the world around them interesting, to encourage head turning, lots of tummy time, and time in a bumbo or saucer when they can hold their heads up.

He also said helmets were becoming an outdated treatment method for this problem.

What does your pedi say? Have you seen a craniofacial specialist?