My Sofia has flathead!! And I have enabled it!!! I always put her on the right and Maia on the left because Sofia likes to look left!!! And I dont do tummy time (I tell myself its cause they have reflux and hate being on their bellies but I really never saw the point in it since its one of those 'new' things and my girls have good head control from being up). So I am just putting another marker on the 'bad mommy' list (I have gotten a few this week!) and I am pledging now to you all THAT I WILL START DOING SOME DAMN TUMMY TIME! :blush:
I am a bad Mum too! DD has a flat head. How long are you supposed to do tummy time? All this is so confusing sometimes.
QUOTE and I am pledging now to you all THAT I WILL START DOING SOME DAMN TUMMY TIME! You know we are going to hold you to that! Seriously though, Jake and Emma both had flat spots at their 4 month appt. Jake's was the worst of the two. From that point on, I swore I would not put them on their backs at all until the situation corrected, and it did! It doesn't happen for all, as some need helmets, but it did work for us. If I did have to lay them down or have them sitting up, I would roll up a blanket and put it under their shoulder/side so that they couldn't lay on that flat spot. I also had two refluxers and used a Boppy a lot for tummy time, as it put them at an angle and helped with the reflux. My two hated tummy time to begin with, so I just did small increments of time, often, and they eventually got used to it. :hug99:
I also had a baby with a flat head. Reading your post I would be very suspicious of torticollis as well in your baby (contracted neck muscles). My pediatrician assured me that my baby just had a preference for looking one direction, but actually it was very difficult and painful for her to look the other way. Because of that, her plagiocephaly worsened and she had to have a helmet. There have been lots of us on here who have had babies go through it. I would definitely think about getting her evaluated for torticollis soon. If you don't get that fixed, fixing the plagiocephaly without a helmet will be very hard. I've been there! Suzanne
Ok so I didnt do tummy time this afternoon (but I will!!) but I did put her on the left so she would have to look right to see her sister, and I put a rolled up receiving blanket behind her in the crib so she couldnt sleep on it. I also noticed that I am right-handed (I didnt just notice that lol) so I always have the girls heads at my left hand like on the changing table and in the bath, so she's always looking right to see me. So I tried putting her head at the other end.... what a mess! I am definitely NOT ambidextrous (sp?)!!!
I wouldn't worry about the changing table position. I always had my babies with their heads on the left. DS#2 had torticollis also. He could not lean his head to the right. He also had trouble nursing because laying in the crook of my arm on the right side was painful. My pediatrician said it would get better on it's own. Ha! I took him to a great physical therapist that made a world of difference.
My DD#2 also had torticollis and flathead. I would have never known but Early Intervention caught it and got it all corrected with exercises and positioning. I would get an evaluation just to make sure.
I'm another tummy-time slacker :blush: but you have inspired me to start doing it daily! Hopefully they learn to enjoy it, because right now it is not so fun...
Using the boppy to put them a sort of incline helps with them enjoying tummy time and the reflux as Becky mentioned. I also really prefered the Bumbo's/excersaucer/jumperoo to tummy time. Both of mine had sorta flat heads that were gone when they started sitting up, enjoying the excersauer. HTH
