I need some advice from you moms out there! Does anyone have an older child with a flat head? My son is 3 & 1/2 now, but he was born 6 weeks early and I was so worried about SIDS that I always put him on his back to sleep. I noticed that the back of his head was getting flat and mentioned it to my pediatrician who's advice was to reposition him and make sure he has plenty of tummy time. We did that and it did not get any worse, but he still has a flat head. Every time I go for a check up, I always ask about it and the pediatrician assures me that his head will round out and that his head won't stop growing until he his 7 or 8. I totally trust my pediatrician, but I just want to hear from other moms who have not put a child in a helmet or DOC-BAND. I've seen pictures on the internet and his case is not near as extreme as some of those cases. I am just a worried mom and I just want what is best for my child. I don't want to be vain, but then again I don't want him to be made fun of either.
I am an old school mom! What I did was to always use my hands to round my baby's head. When I washed their hair, when I have them lying in my lap, whenever the opportunity was there. I don't know if this will help much now, because of the age of your child. But this may be something to consider if you have any more children. And remember, you have the right to always get a second opinion!
Blessings,
VM
It's called Brachycephaly. And no, it won't round out anymore now that he's 3 1/2. But the good news is that if it's really pretty mild, the way you're describing it, then it's just totally cosmetic and he will have no other problems. My daughter had Plagiocephaly, which is when the head is flat on one side. This can push the facial features out of alignment and cause problems like TMJ or migraines later in life. Hers was pretty severe, and we did do a helmet and now its *pretty much* perfectly round. We all have different shaped heads, so as long as it's not causing any other problems your son is fine. And to be honest, you can't do ANYTHING about it now (he's WAY too old for a helmet), so you might as well stop worrying about it. Just don't buzz his hair and no one will notice :)
A side note here: what you are describing is the negative aspect of the Back to Sleep program. I'm not in anyway saying that it's not a valid program, but they scare you half to death about putting your baby on it's tummy. There really was no such diagnosis as Plagiocephaly or Bracycephaly 15 years ago. But this is becoming TONS more common. So, if you have another baby, or any of your friends do, be sure to emphasize the Back to Sleep is great, but EVERY time that baby is awake it needs to be on it's tummy. Obviously this excludes being in a car seat or something. But at all other times the baby should be on it's tummy. Sorry for the soapbox...just don't want others to have to go through what we did!
Hello,
I don't know that a DOC band would work for your son at his age. My son has a slight flat spot on his right side due to positioning. I believe it was caused by his car seat because he always leaned to that side no matter what I did. I started to notice the slight indentation at 3 months of age and asked his pediatrician and she said that it was slight and would likely just fill out on it's own. I had started repositioning at home and it did improve but not completely. At his 9 month appointment I asked his pediatrician again about the spot and she said that it most likely won't improve on it's own all the way because the growth of his head is slowing down and she said if it bothered us that we should get it evaluated.
So she gave us a referral to Cranial Technologies(Dallas). They do free evaluations and we were waiting for that before deciding what we were going to do. After the evaluation we saw the photos and decided to get the treatment. The DOC band is FDA approved and weighs only 6ozs. It doesn't not cinch down on the head at all and does not affect any sort of brain development. The band is not tight either and you go in every 2 weeks for adjustments so that it grows with your child's head. I hate the fact that my son is wearing the band mostly because people stare which I'm adjusting to. I also knew that if I had the chance to improve the area and didn't do it I would hate myself. My sons indentation wasn't noticeable to others but I knew it was there so it wasn't severe at all and there was a chance it would still fix itself but I didn't want to risk it since I could get the care now.
My son started wearing the band at 10 months and he is now 11 months and I already see improvement. I'm hoping he will graduate soon :) We were told 3-4 months but that we just have to see how his head progresses at each adjustment. I'm not sure if this helps you at all but this is my experience.
I am going through nursing school and we just finished the skeletal system. The bones in a childs head shld be pretty fused together by 24 mo of age ( and really that is referring to soft spot on anterior position of skull); I am unsure how obvious the problem is, but at this point i don't thk you can change the shape of his skull w/o specialized equipment. My son had a flatter left side for a while and we started laying him on the other side, but he was till like 4 mo. I do know that most bones don't ossify (final hardened state) till 25 yrs of age (bone lengthning at the epiphiseal plates) and his head has more growing to do--as your doc says, but as far as reshaping at this point---I'm unsure b/c the 7 bones that cause "shape of head" have already fused together forming sutures. I know my mom always said to me to "shape" the babies head after they are born till 7 mo after that its a done deal for the shape changing idea.
We were in the exact same situation. We were told that the helmet would help. Our main concern was was it medically necessary to have him in the helmet. We were told it was not medically necessary that it was just a visual thing on how it looked. Our son is now 4 1/2. You can barely tell and it really depends on how much hair he has (recent hair cut or not) on how much you can tell. Really, we've never had anyone say anything. Don't worry.
Our son, who is now 2, had a misshaped head as well. We opted not to get the helmet. He used a sleep positioner. At 6 months he began sleeping on his tummy and over time it went away. His head is normal now.
Hope this helps. Good luck whatever you decide to do!
Try not to worry. You did the right thing by repositioning. My daughter had a flat head from the time she was born. She favored sleeping on one side so even as an infant, she would rotate herself to that side no matter what we did. I was worried and yes the internet pictures are very scary. We never got her a helmet and it has improved. She is 4 now and her head is still a little flat but it's improved a lot. She takes swim lessons and I was worried about how it would look with her hair wet. I can see it a little because I'm her mom, but others don't notice it at all. Give it some time and I'm sure it will continue to get much better.
Cranial Sacral therapy right away. Please do NOT put a helmet on him, it shuts down the motion of his brain---DOC band does the same. Cranial sacral is gentle. Make sure you get a therapist who has done work with children.
