The skull is soft and alters shape easily in a child’s early months. Time and again a baby will get cosy sleeping in a certain position every night, ensuing in the flattening of a portion of his head. This was made more customary by the ‘back to sleep’ campaign, which advocates that an infant be laid on its back when it sleeps. This has resulted in fewer children dying from SIDS, but it has also resulted in more instances of babies with positional plagiocephaly.
However, most diagnoses of plagiocephaly are not lasting because the infant’s head is supple until about 18 months, and generally rounds out when encouraged to sleep in diverse positions. Regrettably though, some newborns do not cooperate and still sleep on the compressed side and do develop a more relentless flattened skull which results in the head shifting forward and takes place in about 1 in 300 babies. Though positional plagiocephaly does not generally deter the development of the brain, it is significant to distinguish the problem early to evade plastic surgery. Generally, just by repositioning the head when the infant is sleeping works to solve the predicament.
A more rigorous type of positional plagiocephaly is known as craniosynostosis. This is where the skull has merged together earlier than it should. A paediatric neurologist like Alton Ingram MD can establish if this is the case by performing a CT scan or either feeling the head. If it is dogged that the sutures have clogged, plastic surgery will be required to re-shape the head.
To correct or prevent positional plagiocephaly, you have to try to keep the baby from sleeping on the plane part of the head. This is not simple as sometimes the automatically goes back onto that side. Some things you can do to aid the baby keep his head turned away from the horizontal area is to hang a mobile for the infant to look at in the track that you want him to look. It is also suggested that you give the toddler more of what is known as ‘tummy time’ to begin sleeping on his tummy when he begins to roll over. You can also restrict the amount of time the infant spends in a swing, car seat, or bounce seat, or use a particularly made car seat so the child’s head does not lie even.
In some instances, the paediatric neurologist like Alton Ingram MD may advocate that the kid wears a helmet for a few months so that the pressure can be kept off the head and the baby can sleep in any position he wants. This treatment generally begins before the baby is 8 months old and is used to treat more relentless cases of plagiocephaly. This helmet will be made to fit your kid and can be adjusted according to your kid’s growth.
If your child’s head materializes to be flat on one side, schedule a prior arrangement with a paediatric neurologist who will establish what your subsequent step should be.