hello i was just wondering if anyone else out there has had a baby with a funny triangle shape head? i know it sounds silly but my daughter is 5 months old and she has a flat bald and bumpy bit at the back of her head and it makes her head look like a triangle from the top... it's really strange and i want to know if it's gonna stay like that?
At 3 months I noticed my baby was favouring one side and had a flat spot, this is known as positional plagiocepaly. Doctors said there was not much I could do, apart from the helmet thing which is for more mishapen heads. I was given some great advise and contacted a chiropractor that was highly recommended. He firstly needed 4 hours min. of tummy time which I was shocked at but said this could be done through sleeping. I was totally aware of the Back to Sleep program for SIDSwhich has now increase the cases of Plagiocephaly by 74%. My Chiro. dismissed the SIDS risk, and said just do it during the day where you can keep an eye on them if you are concerned. It took a couple of days to get him used to it but by 5/6 months he was sleeping on tummy day and night. I also had to do two other exercises one using a swiss ball to do. He was also have very GENTLE adjustments at the Chiro twice then once a week for about a month and now at 8 months it is every 5 weeks.His head got so much better as did his movement fairly quickly, but I did get it early. There head starts to set around six months or so, so I would see someone asap. Chiropractors are fantastic and just the approach I was looking for.
I hope this helps and please if you have reservations on Chiropractors don't, they are very gentle and give great information. Just try to find one that is recommended and is experienced in babies.
thanx for that i wish i could afford a chiro or more than one doctor visit a month. lol we are on a reallllly tight budget so it's not really an option for us... but thankyou for the thought and your comment i really apreciate your input :)'s to you
Ok thats fair enough it was expensive. Try the tummy sleeping and the other exercise I did was lie them on a swiss ball( on tummy) hold onto arms. Kneeling in front gently roll them back and forth for about 30 secs twice a day. They don't need to come to far forward just so they are using their neck muscles to hold their head up, you can roll them until their feet touch th floor.
hi rebecca i had the same problem with my daughter it's caused by laying your baby in the same position try putting her on side with rolled up nappy or tea towel and with each feed swap sides and the strange bump will hopefuly dispear if not consult your early childhood nurse or doctor
nappies, hey that's a cheeper and dryer idea (it's raining outside and the shops are a 15 min walk away),hehe... i was gonna buy a special pillow but i already have nappies i'll try that cool thanx... ps: the feed idea won't work though cause she is bottle fed and i have troble holding her still any other way than on the couch next to me lol she's a wiggler...
Just for my two cents worth, I have a friend whose going through the same thing with her baby. Except her childs head moulded lop sided due to the same continuous positioning for sleep. She has to rotate a different side of the head each night alternatively (she was advised of no tummy sleeping too) until the fontanelles (skull bones) fuse together. Changing head positioning on alternate nights is making a marked improvement and becoming rounder and like someone else mentioned if this isnt dealt with now your child could possibly be using the helmet for shaping.
Doctors are seeing more and more misshapen skulls on babies thanks to SIDS advice that we should put babies on the back to sleep. You can try and fix it by alternating which side she sleeps on for awhile. Otherwise she will need a special head brace to re-shape her skull before her bones fuse. See your doctor now for advice and don't worry, the brace is not painful and will correct the problem.
Well I didn't really wanna say the S word but since it was brought up, I will go with it. You are right thanks to the whole SIDS stuff (which is scary to think about), there has been alot more mishapen heads. IF I am correct (and please do correct me if I am wrong) that they aren't even 100% sure what actually does cause SIDS. Where I made the decision to put her on her belly was the thought crossed my mind "if sids was caused from being on their bellies then it would be called suffocating" So I put her on her belly and she was fine. and my daughter never had bald patches (her hair fell out and grew in at the same time so it was thin but not gone). I would consult several doctors and get a few opinions and go with what works for you. Naturopathic doctors are great as well.
is that why they say not to put babies on their bellies... sorry i wasn't really paying attention to what the doc was telling me at the hospital and thats all i heard... so is it ok to put her on her belly then? she can roll over both ways...
LOL i know what you mean I was glad to have my husband with me cuz I was so out of it and had nurses telling me everything under the sun I didn't know which way was up. that is what they say but personally I think as long as your baby can move their head well it's ok. I wouldn't feel comfortable saying for you to do it though because my heart would break if something happened. I would weigh my options, consult a few doctors (maybe even over the phone if you can) and go from there!! Cheers hun and good luck I gotta go make dinner now!!
Does your daughter sleep on one side of her head more than the other? If so, try getting her to sleep on the other side and it should even it out. My daughter had the exact same thing and if I didn't act quickly then my daughter would have worn a helment for 23 hrs a day (to shape her head back to what's it's suspose to be) and I have seen babies like that.
So yes, it will stay like that if she keeps sleeping on that one side more than the other.
wow a helmet that's wierd i never heard of that before hey... it looks pretty even from the front because she sleeps on her back most of the time... my mum said the bald patch will grow when she can sit up on her own but i cant get her to sleep with her face in the matress ahhhh what do i doooo???
You could try those things (not sure what they are called ) that is supposed to keep them from rolling over and try propping her on her side. I used to have one of those therapeutic neck pillows and just put my daughter in the center, maybe if it's a little softer than the crib mattress it might even itself out.
Or even you could try rocking her to sleep in the popey hold and then place her on her belly after she is asleep.
Yes that's right, I used one of those things and I can't remember what they are called either. It actually helped out alot, I would turn her on her side every different night and that way her head would get evened out! Good luck!
i didn't think that babies were alowed to sleep on thier bellies... that's what i was told at the hospital, don't know why... but i never did it... the neck pillow sounds like a cool idea though i might try that thanx how long do you reckon it will take to go back to round?
yeah I was told that too but my daughter could move her head well on her own from the start and to be really truthful, she slept better on her tummy and still does to this day. (i am a tummy sleeper too, don't know if that has anything to do with it)
There will probably be alot of ppl who disagree with putting her on her belly and I am not saying to do that (if something happened I wouldn't be able to live with myself). I think as long as there isn't too many blankets and baby can move her/his head well, then I would.
as for time.. i honestly have no idea how long it would take to go back. Good luck hun
My daughter just turned 1 yesterday and she's been sleeping on her tummy for about 3-4 months now. they say its bad but you can't stop a baby from rolling onto their tummy!!
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