Flat head syndrome

Babies heads

Andreea
Andreea
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

Do you know that by sleeping or sitting on their backs, babies’s heads can suffer?

A big part of their time, babies are sleeping or sitting on their back, this is well known, but what is not known as well is the effect that leads.

“[Babies] spend almost all their time on their back, that leads to some positional flattening or molding of the head, depending on how the baby sleeps.”

-Dr. James Laughlin, pediatrician, for CNN

Babies’s skulls are made up of movable plates . This has a lot of benefits, like the possibility of passing through the birth canal, offering the possibility of brain to expend, but there are some costs, like the possibility of developing flat head syndrome. Why? Because their brain can take the shape of the surface they are sitting.

Pediatricians are usually the ones that have to inform parents about how to prevent this syndrome in the first check-ups. Some of the best advice for preventing or minimize the progression are:

  • increase the time your baby is sitting on the tummy
  • keep your baby upright over one shoulder during the day
  • change the way your baby lies on the crib each week

In the recent years, there have been developed a new kind of pillow, especially made for newborns, that prevent flat head syndrome. It is said that it is good because it relieve pressure on the head and neck muscle. It is recommended to supervised your baby while he/she is sleeping because there is a chance of suffocating themselves by rolling, as is the case of every type of pillow.

This kind of pillows are coming in the various ways, but in general they are looking like this:

Photo from Amazon

Parents are usually happy about this pillow and the benefits it has, so it may be a good way to prevent flat head syndrome.

Link for pillow:

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