Advice for Repo Moms

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I wanted to post here some tips for moms who are repo'ing their

babies. Please be aware that the hints I am laying out here for

repositioning are from my experience with a baby with a flat SIDE of

the head. My dd had left-side plagio.

slept in a bassinette in the corner of my bedroom for about 4

months. So always sleeping on her back, looking to the left to see

what was going on in the room, and sitting in her bouncy chair

caused her to develop a flat spot on the back left side of her head.

After doing a lot of research and exploring all my dd's treatment

options, I determined that repositioning was the one I wanted to

pursue. 's flat spot was not severe and she did not have

torticollis (a tightening of the muscles in one side of the neck

which causes the baby to look primarily to one side and therefore

causes a flat spot). Torticollis can undermine repo efforts by

making it very difficult for your baby to look away from his/her

flat spot. didn't have this so I decided to just get repo'ing.

My first move was to turn around in the bassinette so that she

had to look towards the rounded side of her head to see what was

going on in the room or to look for me. At this time she was about

3.5 months old.

There are sleep poitioners o n the market that will help you keep

your baby in a side sleeping position, thus avoiding them sleeping

on their flat spots, but if you are committed to letting your child

sleep on their back, there are a number of things you can do in an

attempt to keep them off of their flat spot. Again, turn them around

in the crib so that they have to roll to the round side to see the

room. Also hang the toys in the front of the crib o that your child

has to look away from his/her flat spot to see the toys. You may

also put something in the crib under your dc's shoulder so that they

are propped to one side and can't easily roll onto the flat side of

their head. Some mothers sue a rolled up towel or receiving blanket.

This works but then you have the possibility, with a restless

sleeper, of it coming unrolled and then you have a loose blanket in

the bed which your dc can get wrapped up in. Some women have sewed

the roll to their dc's sleeper. They have also sewed fabric tubes

filled with rice or poly-fil. One mother used, in her dc's crib, a

gel-filled wrist support like for typing. It is heavy so it won't

slide or roll around the crib, but it is soft so it won't be too

uncomfortable for the baby.

's bouncy chair was not my friend. Nor was her swing. If your

child has a nice strong round head, no flat spot, and gets a lot of

tummy time, bouncy chairs are a great, great thing. For us Plagio

moms, nope. However, if your child is addicted to the bouncy chair

or the swing, you can keep them off their flat spot by using a small

wedge of foam behind their neck. This keeps them comfortable and yet

keeps their head raised up off the back of the bouncy seat or swing.

For a flat spot on the side of your dc's head you can tuck a small

rolled up towel or receiving blanket behind the shoulder on the side

where the flat spot is. This will cause them to roll towards the

other side and help keep them off the flat spot. A small gel wrist

support like the one mentioned above can do the trick. It is soft,

but it doesn't slip when the baby shifts.

During the day, she used to spend a lot of time in a bouncy chair

because she was not a great fan of tummy time. Let me tell you now,

I am as guilty as the next one of using that as an excuse not to do

it, but " she hates tummy time " is no excuse. You can encourage your

baby to tolerate and even like tummy time by simply forcing the

issue. With , I put her down just for as long as she would

tolerate it, which was sometimes only a minute or two. Then I picked

her up. No need to torture her. But a little later when she was calm

again, I put her down again, and we repeated the process. We

repeated the process over and over and over again each day until the

times she spent on the floor got longer and eventually she preferred

tummy time to everything else. It was fun for her to be down there

and play with her brother and sister.

For times when she wasn't on the floor she used an exersaucer.

Sometimes a very young baby (3 or 4 months old) won't tolerate an

exersaucer very long, but then you can put them down for tummy time

or whatever. Don't leave your dc unattended in an exersaucer,

though. No matter what you are doing with them, keep them in sight.

ny Jump-Up worked well as an alternative too, for a while.

liked it, but the kids thought it was an indoor swingset and tried

to grab her up and swing her in it, so no more ny Jump-Up. If

you don't have other kids though, it might be a good alternative.

The packaging recommends it for ages 4mo to walking.

You might want to check out this website, www.bumbobabyseat.com. It

is a cool little baby seat made out of strong rubber foam. It has a

high back so young babies can sit in it as soon as they can hold

their head steady. Yet the back is not so high that a baby's head

won't lean against it and compromise your repo efforts. I used mine

for playtime (I had to keep her occupied while she was in it. A

breakfast in bed tray with toys on it or her baby gym were put to

good use there). I also used it at dinner time. I believe the

packaging said not to use it on an elevated surface, but we put her

in it in the middle of the dining room table before she was big

enough to comfortably sit in the high chair and she could still be

with us at dinner.

There are a couple of things you always want to do when you are

repositioning. First of all, you want to set a repo deadline. Set a

time when you feel you will have given it a good go and then re-

evaluate how you are doing. I started repositioning at 3.5

months and set a deadline for her 6 month well baby checkup. I felt

like that was enough time to see if we were going to have luck with

it, and then if we weren't having luck we could still get her band

on her early enough to have good correction if it came to that. You

have to be open to all options. Don't rule out something that may

help simply because you really wanted it to work another way. Some

babies simply don't round out enough with repo. It is also very

helpful to take periodic pictures of your dc's head shape. I did

mine monthly but most moms do theirs every week or every 2 weeks.

This way you can look objectively at the pictures as you go to see

what progress if any you have made. You can also lay them all out

with your pede at your repo deadline to see what you think your next

step should be.

You can see 's progress pics in the photos section under Before

and After.

I hope this has helped some of you. Please feel free to post any

questions you have, or you can email me offlist if you prefer.

Becky, repo mod

repo grad

Pittsburgh, PA