Anybody had a baby with flat head and baby's head shaped itself later?

Tracey - posted on 02/27/2012

my daughter is now 4 and still I can notice her flat head to one side. No one else seems to notice but when she has a swimming cap or I put her hair up you can notice it.



I too was told early on that she would out grow it but now i'm wondering how long is that going to take. I was told that as long as it's not getting worse it should correct itself.



However, I did get other advice and was told I could put a helmet on her but she was 10 months and the likely hood of it doing anything major was minimal, although we did it anyway. She had it on for 6 months and it change slightly, i acutally think by that time it would have looked better without it but we wouldn't of known that.



If it ever happened to me again, no matter what anyone said to me, I would get a helmet on at the age of a couple of months when it works properly, if she had of had it on then it would of been fixed in 6 weeks or so and we wouldn't have this issue.



She is above average when it comes to development so it didnt affect her in that way and her face is beautiful, it didn't deform her face and i'm hoping because she is a very beautiful girl people will look past it when she grows up.



Good luck with it all, but my advice would be if you can afford it do it now while they have the best chance to fix it. I don't know how much longer she will have it for.

Jackie - posted on 07/11/2011

I noticed somechanges in our daughters head shape early on (at about 2mon). Her ped and I talked about it, and thought it wouldn't hurt to see a sepecialist. They shared with us that she had torticolis and nessicarly stretches. She was favoring looking to one side because it was difficult and. Uncomfortable for her to look the other way. We chose to have our daughter wear a helmet, and because we did so early on she wore it for less than 6 weeks. Tummy time and massage didn't work for us. She will be 3 soon and is happy and healthy. You are a loving, concerned, parent who will make the right choice for your child. Best wishes.

Jen - posted on 07/11/2011

My son's head was flat on one side at about 4 months. I gave him A LOT more tummy time (as the doctor advised) and laid him down on his other side when I put him to sleep (he naturally laid his head to one side so I used a side of his crib to prop him against). I worried like crazy too but the doctor was not too terribly concerned once the changes were made.

Xiomara - posted on 06/28/2011

You can massage his head for at least 10 minutes a day. I did that with my baby and it worked!

Liz - posted on 06/28/2011

I think it depends on the severity. But of course as parents it always seems severe to us. If your ped isn't concerned, I would think it's not very severe. Is his head shaped like a trapezoid (severe), or is it just kind of "dented" on one side?



If you think your ped is just being careless, then a second opinion would relieve your mind. You should worry more about the neck muscles than a flat side, imo. A condition with the neck may require physical therapy.



I have to tell you that I'm extremely wary of that helmet treatment. There is very little empirical evidence that it's necessary. They're very expensive, and your baby has to wear it 23 hours a day for months or even more than a year, but they haven't been shown to work better than just leaving the kid alone.



They're controversial. Some peds think it's a racket to make money off modern parents who are increasingly perfectionist about their children. Imo, after doing some research, I think it's a purely cosmetic issue. The developmental delays link is not convincing to me -- it's from one study by chiropractors, and I don't trust them. But I'm not a doctor or medical researcher, so please take my opinion for what it's worth.



Anyway, my story:



My son was born via c-section so his head was fine, but due to radiation therapy for breast cancer I only have one milk-producing breast -- from co-sleeping and always nursing lying down, my son's head started to get flat on the left side. We noticed it a little around 4 months, but it didn't seem too bad, I guess because he's had a full head of hair since birth, and his head shape was hard to see.



Then around 6 months, we noticed it was starting to become really flat, and one side of his forehead was slightly more extended. So we talked to our ped (who didn't seem too concerned, by the way -- she was always more concerned about possible neck problems), and since then, I have been nursing and sleeping on his other side though I have to contort myself a little. Since he was older and his head was firmer by that time, we didn't worry too much about the other side becoming flat too.



He's now 9.5 months old, and I can hardly tell any more. I feel his head all the time, and I sometimes forget which side is supposed to be flat. It's rounded out a lot. He looks fine.



How old is your son? Once babies start sitting up and crawling, there's improvement because they aren't always lying down.



You don't have to keep re-positioning him in the night. Does he roll over in his sleep and change sides? If not, just alternate nights. Every other night.

Jane - posted on 06/27/2011

My sister was born with a really odd-looking head, but it resolved itself over time without intervention. My husband's head was very flat on the back because he was a back sleeper as a baby, according to his mom.

However, there are times to intervene, and as parents we don't know when that is. But we DO know when something isn't right with our child. As Brianna suggests, I would ask for a referral to a specialist to be certain all is well.

Brianna - posted on 06/27/2011

a important question is how old is ur child? my daughter was about 1 month old wheni noticed her flat head on the back on one side. i immidatley started trying to keep her off that side of her head without much luck. my talked to my pediatrician and i TOLD him i want to see a head shape specialist so he refered me. Its VERY important to see a specialist about it as soon as possible and many doctors wait to long before refering u and its to late. also if i was you i would worry about developmental delays unless its flat in the back and popping out the front (forehead) and yes it can happen. if ur baby needs a helmet for best results in needs to be done in the first year of age. they didnt give me daughter a helmet becuase i caught it so early but she is 19 months now and still has a flat head but its not that notices able cuz she has so much hair but were it was flat the bottom of it is popping back out but the top isnt but they said the top would come back in a few years. and a interesting thing that the special noticed that i never notice cuz it was not very noticable at all but it turned out the reason for the flat head was because she had a neck injury from birth and so she didnt have full moment so we had to do special excercises to fix it. soo please make ur doctor send u to a specialize asap (also there is a circle of moms group with moms with babys that have helmets they can explain lots of things to u)