Baby's resting head preference

ekscopp

My little girl likes to rest her head always to the left. I have been having some lactation issues so my lactation consultant said to pay attention if there is one side the baby prefers over the other and if so, to let the pedi know. Does anyone know what this means or what they would do for it? I'm worried now. I will let the pedi know, but I don't know how urgent it is. Baby is doing awesome gaining weight so no pedi follow up until the end of February. Baby is 2 weeks old on Monday. Thanks in advance! 

littleloves3

This is an issue for our little guy because his head is a little flat on the side he prefers. The pediatrician has us moving his head to the opposite side to strengthen his neck. Said it is no big deal for now

ashhsa

Mine prefers one side too, I move her head to the other side when I can. Not sure how this affects feeding? Interesting, when you find out if love to know. Don't stress on it though,

Monilee1017

The Ped would be looking to see if the baby has torticollis. My DS2 had this and we had to go to PT for about 6 weeks. The doctors like to know sooner because the sooner they go to PT the better, as you don't want it to get to severe. It is pretty common in infants and if not severe is easily handled with daily stretches. 

Rach8672

The only way it affects feeding is that they would have you alternate sides if you are using a bottle or reposition your hold to avoid encouraging the baby to turn its head the desired way . They would want you to encourage having your LO to look to the opposite side to even out muscle strength at the neck.  

ainverso

They are referring to torticollis, if baby hold head to one side all the time it makes the muscles longer on one side (stretched ) and shorter on the other. This can effect lots of things like feeding (due to it making it uncomfortable to eat on one side bc can't turn head that way) , vision, play Ect if it isn't corrected. It is fixed with stretching, exercises and play on the opposite side to encourage baby to turn head . We all have a resting position that is comfortable for us, really what matters is if baby can turn head both directions and get ear to the floor. If they can do that and turn it often and consistently, it doesn't truest matter if sleeping preference is one way over he other. 

babybluu

Sometimes babies are really cramped in the womb and they can be in a weird position. We had our baby adjusted/ her muscles stretched out to help. She preferred to look to her left and it was affecting her latch. So she gently tried to help my baby look to her right while holding her left shoulder down. We are gonna go back for one more appointment to get her adjusted again