Life With A Baby - Flat Head

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 1:41 PM

Reply # 757071 on 756962

Chelsea

Janne wrote:Our baby's head is starting to round out. He had quite an extreme "point" on his left side because he favoured the right side. He received physiotherapy and after he was able to move his head to the other side it did started to round out but not completely (yet?). It's been 3 months since and there has been a big improvement. I am sure tummy time has helped. At the time we thought it would never round out but his doctor assured us that it would since the bones do not fuse until around 12 months.

Hi Janne,

Did the physio do exercises to strengthen his head turning, thus preventing the flat head? Or does he/she do massages to try and round out the flat spots? I'm worried that my baby's head won't be able to correct itself by 12 months because she has a very flat head right now at 8 months. It's no longer in spots, it's the whole backside. I think we need more drastic measures. We tried more tummy time, sitting up, etc, but only noticed slight improvements.

The doctor told us of another option of wearing helmets for the baby, but we want to try everything else first, since the helmet costs a couple grand, and I'm sure it'd be uncomfortable for her. I'm desperate for a quick and less costly method. I"ll try the heart shaped pillow first. And physio.

Thanks,

Chelsea

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 8:36 PM

Reply # 762360 on 757071

Janne

Chelsea wrote:
Janne wrote:Our baby's head is starting to round out. He had quite an extreme "point" on his left side because he favoured the right side. He received physiotherapy and after he was able to move his head to the other side it did started to round out but not completely (yet?). It's been 3 months since and there has been a big improvement. I am sure tummy time has helped. At the time we thought it would never round out but his doctor assured us that it would since the bones do not fuse until around 12 months.

Hi Janne,

Did the physio do exercises to strengthen his head turning, thus preventing the flat head? Or does he/she do massages to try and round out the flat spots? I'm worried that my baby's head won't be able to correct itself by 12 months because she has a very flat head right now at 8 months. It's no longer in spots, it's the whole backside. I think we need more drastic measures. We tried more tummy time, sitting up, etc, but only noticed slight improvements.

The doctor told us of another option of wearing helmets for the baby, but we want to try everything else first, since the helmet costs a couple grand, and I'm sure it'd be uncomfortable for her. I'm desperate for a quick and less costly method. I"ll try the heart shaped pillow first. And physio.

Thanks,

Chelsea

Our physio was covered by CCAC. We got a referral from our doctor and someone contacted us within a week. It was great. The phyiotherapist comes to your home. I'm not sure if it is covered for conditions (i.e child breaks leg and needs physio after) but our baby was diagnosed with mild congenital torticollis. If your baby is favouring one side your baby may have a similar condition but have it checked out. The therapist does the assessment and creates a therapy plan of exercises and stretches. There is no massage involved. We really enjoyed our therapist but I'm not sure if you can directly request her. At the time (10 weeks), we were very concerned that his head would never round out, even at 15 weeks it was still looking pretty bad. But over the past couple of months, he is now 30 weeks, it is much rounder. A vast improvement. The therapy may be worth the effort! Yes those helmets are $$$$.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 9:01 PM

Reply # 762379 on 762360

Janne

Janne wrote:
Chelsea wrote:
Janne wrote:Our baby's head is starting to round out. He had quite an extreme "point" on his left side because he favoured the right side. He received physiotherapy and after he was able to move his head to the other side it did started to round out but not completely (yet?). It's been 3 months since and there has been a big improvement. I am sure tummy time has helped. At the time we thought it would never round out but his doctor assured us that it would since the bones do not fuse until around 12 months.

Hi Janne,

Did the physio do exercises to strengthen his head turning, thus preventing the flat head? Or does he/she do massages to try and round out the flat spots? I'm worried that my baby's head won't be able to correct itself by 12 months because she has a very flat head right now at 8 months. It's no longer in spots, it's the whole backside. I think we need more drastic measures. We tried more tummy time, sitting up, etc, but only noticed slight improvements.

The doctor told us of another option of wearing helmets for the baby, but we want to try everything else first, since the helmet costs a couple grand, and I'm sure it'd be uncomfortable for her. I'm desperate for a quick and less costly method. I"ll try the heart shaped pillow first. And physio.

Thanks,

Chelsea

Our physio was covered by CCAC. We got a referral from our doctor and someone contacted us within a week. It was great. The phyiotherapist comes to your home. I'm not sure if it is covered for conditions (i.e child breaks leg and needs physio after) but our baby was diagnosed with mild congenital torticollis. If your baby is favouring one side your baby may have a similar condition but have it checked out. The therapist does the assessment and creates a therapy plan of exercises and stretches. There is no massage involved. We really enjoyed our therapist but I'm not sure if you can directly request her. At the time (10 weeks), we were very concerned that his head would never round out, even at 15 weeks it was still looking pretty bad. But over the past couple of months, he is now 30 weeks, it is much rounder. A vast improvement. The therapy may be worth the effort! Yes those helmets are $$$$.

Sorry Chelsea, it wasn't quick improvement. I stopped asking for perfection and just hoping for somewhat symmetrical shaped head. We bought a pillow for our son also but now that he rolls he took that out of the crib.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011 3:47 AM

Reply # 766844 on 762379

Chelsea

Janne wrote:

Sorry Chelsea, it wasn't quick improvement. I stopped asking for perfection and just hoping for somewhat symmetrical shaped head. We bought a pillow for our son also but now that he rolls he took that out of the crib.

Thanks for your reply. Can you give me your physiotherapist's contact info? From your recommendation, I think it is worthwhile to give therapy a try, even if I have to pay out of pocket. At least it will be cheaper than helmets, I hope! My daughter's head is symmetrical, but really flat on the back. I hope the therapist can provide some exercises to help correct the shape of her head, though my daughter is very mobile now, and moves around a lot, so I don't think it's necessarily her favouring one side that's causing the flat head. It was us putting her in car seat almost every day for long hours at a time even at times when I could have used an infant carrier. Sigh. At least now I've learned.

Do you want to sell me the pillow that you're no longer using? :)

Thursday, December 22, 2011 11:33 AM

Reply # 779549 on 756344

Mary

K wrote:Does flat head correct itself? My pediatrician says it does, along with tummy time and sitting up.

Your pediatrician is right. My daughter also favoured one side causing "flat head" but after a couple of months it corrected itself.

Last modified: Thursday, December 22, 2011 11:34 AM | Mary