Preventing flat head?

[Deleted User]

My LO is still an inside baby, but I want to be proactive in looking for tips & tricks to avoid the flat head syndrome. I've seen things mentioned here & there in other threads, but thought maybe it deserved its own topic in case others were wondering as well.

Can STMs or even FTMs with outside babies share what they've learned? I really want to avoid that helmet thing at all costs!

Emerald27

Hold baby a lot. Wear baby a lot. Do tummy time on your chest and on the bed (supervised!!) and on a playmat or blanket. Just limit the amount of time that baby is just laying on his/her back and head, and you should be good.

Roseypants

Emerald27 said:

Hold baby a lot. Wear baby a lot. Do tummy time on your chest and on the bed (supervised!!) and on a playmat or blanket. Just limit the amount of time that baby is just laying on his/her back and head, and you should be good.

This exactly!

uksteph11

I am a pediatric PT and work with infants who have plagiocephaly (flat head) on a regular basis.  As people have mentioned, the best thing you can do is vary their positions.  

Infants develop flat head when they lay in the same position too much.  The sutures in their skulls have not closed so if they continually have pressure on one area, it will shift the plates of the skull causing a flat spot.  If you don't correct this, the sutures will eventually close, leaving a permanent flat spot.  It can also cause facial abnormalities as well. 

One thing to be aware of, all of the time they spend in any positioning device (car seat, bouncer, swing...) counts as time on their backs.  These positioning devices also increase the likelihood of developing a flat spot because most infants will turn their head to one side and remain in that position.  This is the most common cause of plagiocephaly.  The pediatricians I work with recommend no more than 20 minutes a day in positioning devices.  Hope this helps!

uksteph11

scottysgirl77 said:

I am a pediatric PT and work with infants who have plagiocephaly (flat head) on a regular basis.  As people have mentioned, the best thing you can do is vary their positions.  

Infants develop flat head when they lay in the same position too much.  The sutures in their skulls have not closed so if they continually have pressure on one area, it will shift the plates of the skull causing a flat spot.  If you don't correct this, the sutures will eventually close, leaving a permanent flat spot.  It can also cause facial abnormalities as well. 

One thing to be aware of, all of the time they spend in any positioning device (car seat, bouncer, swing...) counts as time on their backs.  These positioning devices also increase the likelihood of developing a flat spot because most infants will turn their head to one side and remain in that position.  This is the most common cause of plagiocephaly.  The pediatricians I work with recommend no more than 20 minutes a day in positioning devices.  Hope this helps!

So is a crib/bassinet considered a positioning device?

No, not as long as they are a flat surface.  At the hospital I work at, a positioning device is anything that is supports the baby in a reclined position.  It does, of course, count as time that your baby spends on its back.

MuffinMom14

No more than 20 minutes a DAY in a car seat/bouncer/swing?

How long is this rule for? If we go visit someone an hour away, they've just gotten 6x the recommended amount of time, and that means I can't put her down the entire rest of the day.

I'm not doubting you, I'm just shocked (and wondering why I bought a swing at all). I'm also second-guessing a RnP, now.

[Deleted User]

@uksteph11‌ Thanks for sharing that info! I hadn't heard about the 20 min per day limit either.

I'm curious how long we need to be concerned with this stuff? Is it no longer an issue when babies are able to support their neck/head on their own?

ETA: words

golfingdarwinfish

SPurp13 said:

No more than 20 minutes a DAY in a car seat/bouncer/swing?

How long is this rule for? If we go visit someone an hour away, they've just gotten 6x the recommended amount of time, and that means I can't put her down the entire rest of the day.

I'm not doubting you, I'm just shocked (and wondering why I bought a swing at all). I'm also second-guessing a RnP, now.

Yeah, 20min sounds ridiculously low.  For many people a trip to the ped takes 20min in the infant seat, one way.

MuffinMom14

golfingdarwinfish said:

SPurp13 said:

No more than 20 minutes a DAY in a car seat/bouncer/swing?

How long is this rule for? If we go visit someone an hour away, they've just gotten 6x the recommended amount of time, and that means I can't put her down the entire rest of the day.

I'm not doubting you, I'm just shocked (and wondering why I bought a swing at all). I'm also second-guessing a RnP, now.

Yeah, 20min sounds ridiculously low.  For many people a trip to the ped takes 20min in the infant seat, one way.

Right?! There are tons of people who have their kids sleep in RnPs all night and then swings during the day. I want to do whatever I can to prevent this stuff, but I'm trying to sift through useful information vs. super over-conservative cautionary tales.

I get not parking your kid in one 22 hours a day, and I get the importance of tummy time (and I'll obviously ask the pediatrician when we go), but babies spend a ton of time on their backs, just because they are sleeping...

swise22

DS loves to sleep on his stomach so we've been letting him take naps on our chest throughout the day on his tummy. During the night he sleeps in a rock n play.

uksteph11

This is strictly from my experience, but I plan on do no more than 20 minutes, three times a day as a general rule.  There will definitely be times when my LO will be in the car seat >1 hour at a time.  I have family that I am very close to that lives 90 minutes away. 

Please take this simply as what I am planning on doing though, not what any of the pediatricians I work with recommend.  I think our pediatricians recommend 20 minutes a day as a general rule.  Also, keep in mind that the parents we are recommending this to are coming to us because their infant already has a flat head.  We tell them a very conservative amount of time to allow for the skull to shift back into its correct position. 

As for when you can stop worrying about this, a good general rule is when the baby has good head/neck control and is mobile, either rolling or crawling, consistently.  Once a baby can control their head and move, they generally are moving their head enough to prevent too much pressure on any one area. 

MuffinMom14

uksteph11 said:

This is strictly from my experience, but I plan on do no more than 20 minutes, three times a day as a general rule.  There will definitely be times when my LO will be in the car seat >1 hour at a time.  I have family that I am very close to that lives 90 minutes away. 

Please take this simply as what I am planning on doing though, not what any of the pediatricians I work with recommend.  I think our pediatricians recommend 20 minutes a day as a general rule.  Also, keep in mind that the parents we are recommending this to are coming to us because their infant already has a flat head.  We tell them a very conservative amount of time to allow for the skull to shift back into its correct position. 

As for when you can stop worrying about this, a good general rule is when the baby has good head/neck control and is mobile, either rolling or crawling, consistently.  Once a baby can control their head and move, they generally are moving their head enough to prevent too much pressure on any one area. 

Oooooooh. So the 20 minutes a day is for those with the already flat heads. That makes me feel slightly better. Although, I'm still concerned about using the RnP should we need to at night. I was on the fence about it to begin with (considered getting the RnP that is flat instead, but found a RnP on clearance for $25 and went for it). We plan on the crib at night...but who knows what will happen? So, we had the RnP as a back-up option.

reneenearl

With DS 1 we did a lot of sleeping on our chests during the day, tummy time, and switching up any baby gear he was in.

He slept flat at night but during the day he would use the swing, vibrating seat, car seat when we went places, and the rock n play. I just made sure not to
Keep him in the same one for a long period of time. So if he had been in the swing, the next time I needed to set him down to do something I used the vibrating seat, and would just switch it up each time.

Our pedi is 45 mins away so even a trip to the pedi is 1 1/2 hr in the car seat.

uksteph11

Not trying to cause any unnecessary worry, just providing a professional opinion based on recommendations from one of the nations top pediatric hospitals.  There are countless moms who put their infants in positional devices for the majority of the day and have had no problems.  Every baby is different.  I was just trying to provide information on how to prevent it.  Sorry, if I alarmed anyone.  I'm a "better safe than sorry" type of person so I tend to stick with things that are clinically proven as opposed to antidotal evidence.  Here is a link on general guidelines, hope it helps.

https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/p/plagiocephaly/