Flat Head!

I don't know how I missed it, but our Community Health nurse pointed out on Monday that twin B (13 weeks 4 days, 8 weeks 1 day adjusted) is developing a flat spot on the right side of her head which is causing her head to bulge on the back right. The nurse gave us a worksheet with exercises that seem like torture and twin B is having none of the exercises. (One exercise tells you to put one hand on the baby's left shoulder while trying to hold her head right - this elicited screams of disagreement and I'm afraid holding her down will hurt her.) We're doing tummy time now two to three times a day with her and doing a lot more to get her off of her head, but I am obviously concerned. To make matters worse, she only sleeps with her head turned right. I have tried to re-direct her head, but she either wakes-up or simply turns it back.

For those of you who have had this happen to your kiddo(s):
1) When did you notice it?
2) How did you correct the flat spot? (Exercises? Helmet?)
3) When did you start making the corrections? (infancy or did you wait)
4) How long did it take to correct?

Thanks for any help and tips.

 

Our doc noticed Daniel had the same thing fairly early (I couldn't really notice it with all his hair) Her advice was to roll a towel the full lenght of his body and place it on the side of the flat spot. So he is slightly propped but not on his side. This causes his head to lay on the good side. He fought this for about a week and still prefers the other side but we did it for a month and the doc now says that we won't need a pedi referral. I'm still doing it and she says it will be fine. This was noticed at about 2 months. Because it was early on we didn't need to go another route. Hope you will get more experienced advice. Good luck

 

I heard about a pillow on this website called the boppy noggin and I ordered it for my kids. Although it said not to use for sleeping, I did. With my DD I noticed a difference very quickly, i.e. a few weeks. DS had a lop-sided looking head and we did lots of exercises, mostly toys and interaction to get him to face the other way. Did the pillow work for him? I don't know but with time it has gotten a lot better.

I work with orthopedic surgeons and I spoke to the chief of the department. He was not for those helmets at all. He said first off you would have to make the baby wear it for 23 hours a day for 6 months (that's just torture) and in the end there is no evidence that it makes that much of a difference.

My advice is try the pillows, try creative exercises to engage them and more than likely things will improve with time.

If you have any questions, PM me.

 

My first son, who is almost 7 now, had torticollis and only would look to the right. He ended up in a helmet around 5-6 months of age due to a very lopsided head. He wore the helmet about 2 months, but it was a huge pain. We constantly were going in for adjustments. It did make me feel much better though as I finally felt like we were doing something to help the problem (or at least prevent it from getting worse). In the end, I think it did help a bit but it's hard to know... maybe it would've corrected by itself. You wouldn't know it to look at him now, but his ears are definitely no where close to be being straight across from each other! The shape of his head is pretty good though.

My 4 month old (2.5 mos adjusted) twin boys also have insisted from day one they look over their right shoulder. One still has a pretty round head, but his ears have migrated significantly. The other's ears aren't too bad off alignment but he has a pretty misshapen head. I stress about it every single day and try all the things to keep them off their heads as much as possible. Dr. says we'll reevaluate at 6 months. I worry that will be too late.

I just read the other post about the boppy noggin pillow.. I've never heard of this!!! I am SO mad. Why don't I know about this product??? I wouldn't be in this boat again if I had known about that pillow. :headbang: I just ordered two of them from Amazon for $12 each. It has great reviews and I really, really hope it helps because I don't want to go the helmet route again.

I probably don't have much to add beyond what your dr. told you. I try to keep the boys more upright... in the swing, the bouncy seats and now I'm so happy they can be in the bumbo seat and the exersaucers. I do use sleep positioners in the evening for the one who will tolerate it. I wait until he's in a deep sleep then put him in it. The other guy will have nothing to do with sleep positioners or lying on his side. Once he's been asleep for about 45 minutes, I'll go in and turn his head the other direction. He's not great at keeping it that directions, but he's definitely staying that way longer and longer. When my husband and I go to bed, we remove the sleep positioner and just try to turn their heads and hope they stay that way for awhile. It's very stressful to constantly be aware of their head position, so I understand what you're going through!

I would say to just keep trying to turn head as much as you can, and eventually maybe she'll start to accept it. Good luck! Feel free to pm me if you want!!
~Lori

 

One of my twins is getting a really weird shaped, both flat & lopsided head. The other is fine! They will be 11 weeks tomorrow and I noticed it about a week ago.

 

If it's any consolation, my twins have been using the Boppy Noggin Nest since birth and I've just noticed that DD has a bit of a flat spot in the back. I'm really not sure how this could have happened considering her head is ALWAYS in that thing (as is her brother's) but, there you go. The Noggin Nest is great though and only $15. I'm hoping some tummy time will round out her head and we'll be back on track.

 

The boppy noggin pillow we used for DD#1 -- especially when she was lying on her back. You can't really use it too well once they start rolling though. We also used the sleep positioners because she had open heart surgery and it helped with the head since she couldn't do belly time right away.

Good luck -- there sounds like some good suggestions on here!

 

Ava had torticollis and had developed a flat spot because of it (noticed by the pedi at around 2 months of age). We started going to physio at that point and they taught us some exercises we could do to help (including more tummy time and keeping interesting things on her left - she preferred to turn her head to the right). As she got older we could do more to strengthen her neck and thus fill out the flat spot (head righting exercises, holding her shoulder back gently while dangling a toy to her left so she didn't turn her whole body and had to strengthen her neck). We checked in with the physiotherapists every 6-8 weeks and each time they took pictures and did simple tests to check for improvement. I am pleased to say that by the time she was six months old the flat spot had almost completely disappeared and her neck strength was equal on both sides (she no longer preferred to look to the right). We no longer go to physio and at 10 months of age the flat spot is gone completely. No helmet required! I think because you have caught it so early that the combination of tummy time and gentle exercises will do the trick. I think I still have the worksheet the physiotherapists gave us at our first appointment outlining the exercises we did so feel free to PM me if you are interested. Good luck!

 

:good: Same here with us! My son had torticollis. The exercises do help tremendously and yes, they do cry but it's not because they are in great pain, they just don't want you to do anything with them. :lol: The exercises helped my son alot! By nine months his head shape was alot better. :good: Lots and lots of tummy time also helped.

 

Nicholas had torticollis, which I started noticing around four months, if not a bit sooner. But the Dr wasn't concerned-yet. It seemed to get worse...and then he finally noticed. I tried some of the exercises, but it was too late. It eventually corrected itself-before he had EI therapy for it(not to mention the therapist did nothing...). So-from experience-even though they are crying-keep at it. Nicholas' head is now flat on the back right. It's not something you can really see, unless I tell you. But *I* know, and that's all that matters! Here's a picture of him in the swing-this is how he slept:

Torticollis

 

Thanks, ladies! I had never heard of the Noggin Nest. Needless to say, two are on their way. I also like the suggestion of using a rolled towel. We had been putting one under their arm pits when they are on their tummy, but never thought to use it to bolster the flat side.

Thanks so much for sharing your stories and tips. I really appreciate it!

 

Alice is a flathead too. It's messed up the alignment of her teeth a bit, *but* I'm not sure that's the only reason her teeth are not aligned properly. (I had really bad teeth issues growing up.) I would try the noggin nest thingies.

 

at my twins' 4 month visit (2.5 months adjusted) they noticed that both had flat heads (symmetrically flat in back). I tried to keep them off their heads as much as possible during the day (bought the noggin nests and put in their bouncy seats, strollers, swings, etc.

at night, i bought a sleep positioner with wedges. i wasn't comfortable putting a towel in the crib for fear of suffocation (although i'm sure it's fine if done right). My twin b's head is still flat at 7 months but it didn't get any worse and will only look better as he gets bigger and gets more hair. since his head is symmetric and his ears, etc. are aligned our ped didn't think we needed to get a helmet for him.

i freaked out about this but am so over it now! his head will never be perfect but who do you know that has a perfectly shaped head?

good luck!

 

We used the bobby noggin nest and noticed a difference very quickly. I actually used one in his car seat (where I fed him, so he spent a lot of time there), and another for swings and for night time. I know you aren't supposed to use them at night, and I stopped when I stopped swaddling him. Only one of my twins had a flat spot. His head still isn't as nicely shaped as his sisters.

 

my boys both had torticollis. the flat spots developed on the back of their heads so we didn't have symmetry concerns, but we certainly wanted to correct the situation. we ended up doing physical therapy for a couple of months to help resolve the torticollis issues. if you have any concerns about what might have caused the flat spot on one side, you could see if your health insurance would cover a PT evaluation.

the exercises were never easy, and we had to just muscle through them. we would turn their heads the opposite way and sing a song while they complained, and we also had to tip them on their sides and angle their heads against the tilt, again while singing a song. we did the exercises twice a day and PT once a week, then eventually once every other week. it really helped.

the boys slept propped up in bouncy chairs thanks to reflux, so we also had them sleep on a cushion and propped one side of the cushion up to encourage them to sleep with head pointing the other way.

stick with the exercises! my guys have big ol' round heads to prove they work! :laughing:

 

Mine are 14 weeks. Couple of wks ago discovered te littler one has a flat spot on her right. Brought her to the doc this past Thursday and the doc says she is to young to wear helmet but by the 4 th month check up she most likely would end up with one. So after the doc visit and after reading this thread(thanks for posting), I have
1. Ordered the noggin nests. 2. Bought 2 bumbo seats to increase time off the little heads. 3. Hold the smaller baby more. 4. Using my baby pouch to carry her around. 5. Bought baby Mozart DVD to encourage her to turn her head to the left.
I have been doin the rolling blanket since two weeks ago, not very successful but will continue to try.