My son has a flat spot on one side of his head. I alternate where he naps so that his head isn't always on the same surface. He sleeps in a handmade wooden cradle at night. He sleeps on his back but turns his head to one side and, unfortunately, favors only one side. I took him to the pediatrician yesterday and my doctor told me that I have to put him to sleep on his side and prop a towel behind his head to keep him from laying on the flat side. I am stressing because of the SIDS risk. His head is pretty strong so I think that if his mouth was covered by his sheet he may be able to lift his head and cry but it still scares me. We ordered the Snuza last night for piece of mind. Anyone else have to put their LO to sleep on their side?
Re: Flat head...
I just got a snuza because I was having anxiety every night because babies that sleep on their backs can have SIDS too, so I was never truly relaxed at night.
2 years of TTC, Seeing RE Feb 09, 2 medicated TI cycles - BFNs, 3 medicated IUIs - BFNs, back to medicated TI cycles until IVF approval, IVF approved in March 2010. BFP on last medicated TI cycle.
this completely. Our DD had torticollis as well and when you mentioned favoring one side I immediately thought of that. You will most likely be referred to a pediatric physical therapist for an evaluation and therapy. It is much better to get it caught earlier than later not just to fix the torticollis (tightening of the neck muscle that makes it more comfortable to turn/tilt to one side) but also to allow time for the head to reshape while it is still soft. We had to get a helmet for DD but her case was severe.
We first noticed him favoring one side (turning to the right side) when he slept or laid down on us. We could turn his head to the left, but he would often use his energy to move it back to the right. It wasn't a direct turn to the right, but his head was sort of cocked too. We also noticed that when we tried turning his head, to the left was tight/harder to turn, but to the right was quick/loose.
FWIW - the pedi didn't bring it up first, we did at 2 months. She said if we were concerned, we should call the county infant and toddlers program (where they offer pediatric physical, occupational, etc therapies. We did call them and had an evaluation at 3months, which he qualified for physical therapy. It was determined later in the therapy that he also had low muscle tone, which made it harder for him to gain muscle control and correct the torticollis. We ended up doing a corrective helmet from 7-11 months of age. That corrected a lot of his issue!
2 years of TTC, Seeing RE Feb 09, 2 medicated TI cycles - BFNs, 3 medicated IUIs - BFNs, back to medicated TI cycles until IVF approval, IVF approved in March 2010. BFP on last medicated TI cycle.