Re: 5 month old daughter with flat spot

August 24, 2010

.....First, let me apologize for this long post. I have a lot of info

I want to share. I have a 7 year old daughter who had plagio as a baby and I

repositioned her to almost full correction. I never took her to a specialist or

had her head measured for asymmetry percentages but going by an assessment chart

I found at the Cranial Tech website I would say that her head was mild/moderate

plagio.

You asked how long it takes for plagio to correct itself and how long the self

correction process takes. I need to start by saying that there is no self

correction for plagio. A baby's head does not change shape without some outside

force causing it, as you are already aware from what you have said about her

sleeping on the other side of her head due to the skull fracture. (BTW, it's

good to hear that she has healed from that). It doesn't become misshapen

without an outside force and it won't gain correction without an outside force.

What it seems you are hoping to do is called Aggressive Repositioning.

Aggressive because it is a full time job. My daughter's plagio was on her

left side so I spent every waking moment making sure that everything in her life

happened on her right side. The things you have done in the crib are a very

good start. With the rolled up blanket under her shoulder you could put it under

the fitted sheet in the crib if you worry about loose items in the crib being a

sids risk. Also, if your daughter is a restless sleeper, you might consider

pinning the roll to the back of her jammies with a diaper pin.

Your daughter is probably a little old to still be using a swing or bouncer, but

if she is still using a seat that causes her to rest on her flat spot, you can

use the same rolled blanket/cloth diaper behind her shoulder to keep her tilted

to the other side. In a car seat, if she has hanging toys to keep her occupied,

hang the toys to the side you want her looking towards. Similarly, try

positioning her car seat so that she has to look to the rounded side to see out

the window or other people in the car. This might involve a little juggling of

the carseat each time you go somewhere but in my experience, it was worth it.

Also, make sure she is doing her tummy time. If she is one of those babies who

" hates tummy time " , please let me know and I can give you some tips and ideas

for making it more fun for her.

Have you tried to put your daughter in an exersaucer or a

jumparoo/johnny-jump-up? If her neck is steady, and by 5 months it should be,

then this is a good way to keep her occupied when you are not holding her that

also does not involve her resting on her flat spot. Also look into a Bumbo baby

seat if you don't already have one.

Whether your daughter is nursing or taking a bottle, make sure that when you

hold her, you position you arm so that you are applying slight pressure to the

rounded spot of her head. I am not saying push on her head while she is eating,

I just mean make sure the rounded area of her head is resting against your arm

as best you can. I even went so far as to let my daughter nap in my arms

whenever I was free to do that. She would rest her head on my shoulder and I

would turn the head so that I could rest my head against her rounded area and I

felt like I was holding the rounded area steady while the flat area continued to

grow. But then again, i am a stay at home mom and I had the time and freedom to

do this.

Your daughter should be coming up on her 6mo growth spurt any time now, and if

you can get into some aggressive repo habits, you could see some major change.

You definitely need to set a deadline for when you are going to assess her

progress and make a decision regarding whether you are going to continue

repositioning or move on to pursue a band/helmet as an option. My deadline was

6 months, after her growth spurt. At that time I found I was happy with her

progress and I cancelled her appt with the specialist. While you are

repositioning, it will help you make your decision if you have taken progress

pictures along the way. I started repositioning at 3.5 months so I took

her pictures monthly. At your daughter's age, I would probably suggest weekly.

Take a picture of the top of her head, as directly above her as possible and

from the same angle every time. And looking at the photos will help you see

progress that you won't see with the naked eye. You can look at 's

progress pictures in our photos section in the Before and After/Repositioned

folder. The pictures are labeled S.

When you reach the deadline you have set for yourself, look at your pictures and

decide how you want to proceed from there.

Please feel free to contact me offlist or tag me in the subject line of your

post if you have any questions. I am happy to help.

Becky, repositioning moderator

, age 7, repo graduate.

>

> My daughter has developed at flat spot on the back/side of her head. A little

background: When she was 2 weeks old, she suffered from a skull fracture.

While she was healing from it, she tended to turn her head to the opposite side

(not fracture side) when in her swing or crib. I never tried to change her

position as I didn't want to interfere with the healing of her fracture. At

about 3 months, I notice that she had developed what the ped said is a " mild "

flat spot. His recommendation was to turn her around in her crib to encourage

her to turn her head to see the fun side of the room. Also recommended that I

put a rolled up blanket under her shoulder when sleeping to force her to keep

her head turned in the correct direction. I did so immediately. I don't think

it has gotten worse, but I can't tell if it has gotten any better. My questions

are: How long can it take for this to correct itself? How does the self

correction process work? (i.e. will laying on the other side push her skull

back the other way? how does it round back out? I am freaking out now that I

have been reading about this condition and people saying that there are

developmental delays caused by it....ugh. As if I am not cookoo enough over her

due to her injury, now I am constanly worried about this! Please help with an

info

>

> Thank you,

>

August 24, 2010

No need to freak out. You can take her for a measurement to see how severe her

" flat spot " is. If it is moderate to severe, then I would get a band for her,

and the problem will be fixed. I don't think there are any delays caused with

plagio itself. Possibly torticollis causes delays, since it restricts movement

to some extent. It is true that babies that don't get much tummy time may crawl

later, but that doesn't mean it is caused by their head shape. My daughter had

brachy (flat in back with extra width) and was on time or early for everything.

She was wearing a band during many of her milestones such as crawling, standing

and walking.

Also it seems completely reasonable that she spent more time on one side given

her injury. She is still young and you have a choice to continue repositioning

for a while longer, or try to get her banded. If you do continue repo I would

recommend taking photos every week or two to see if you are making progress. I

found the top view worked best, but it depends on your baby's head - the photos

should show the worst, so you and see changes there.

Laying on one side or banding won't " push " the skull into shape. Instead the

head will grow in the area where there is least resistance. So new growth won't

come to the part of the head where the baby is resting. That is why banding

works faster - you know some gentle pressure is on the prominent area at all

times, so new growth is redirected to the flat area - where the band has extra

room. Both repositioning and banding require growth to work. This is why they

work when the baby is young and head/brain is growing fast.

-christine

sydney, 4.5 yrs, starband grad