Your doctor may also refer you to a neurosurgery clinic or craniofacial centre. If your baby has a flat spot, your doctor will refer you to a physiotherapist, or you can schedule an assessment with a physio yourself. There are a few rare conditions that can cause an asymmetrical skull as well, such as scaphocephaly or craniosynostosis, where the skull’s bony plates start to harden and fuse together earlier than they ought to, so schedule a doctor’s appointment to assess the situation. Torticollis can develop during pregnancy or delivery, or the muscles may tighten simply because your stubborn kiddo prefers to keep their head to the left or right. Some babies, like Henry, have tight neck muscles on one side, which is called torticollis, and that can contribute to a flat spot. It’s also common in preemies who spend a lot of time in the NICU lying on their back or side. In addition to being caused by the repeated pressure from a mattress or car seat on one side of the head, it can also develop during pregnancy if the baby is positioned in a way that puts pressure on their head (for example, if they’re pressed up against the pubic bone), or if you have multiples. What causes flat head syndrome?Ī few different situations can lead to flat head syndrome.
It can also be caused by the early fusion of the plates of the skull. This is quite common in babies who are in the NICU and spend time lying on their side.
The head may be wider or taller than usual, and the tips of the ears may stick out.įinally, positional scaphocephaly is a flattening of both sides of the head. One ear may be further forward than the other one eye may appear smaller than the other and one cheek may be fuller than the other.īrachycephaly means there is a flat spot at the back of the baby’s head. The most common is positional plagiocephaly, which means there is a flat spot on the left or right side of the head because the baby keeps their head turned to that side. There are three types of flat head syndrome. Halfin sees babies as young as five weeks old for an assessment, although she usually first sees them around the two- to four-month mark. What are the signs of flat head syndrome?Įither your doctor will notice your baby’s flat head at one of your regular well child visits or you might recognize some of the common symptoms. Here’s what you need to know about flat head syndrome. “I tell parents that this is super-common and it’s very fixable, especially if we catch it early,” says Jennifer Halfin, a paediatric physiotherapist in Toronto. Flat head syndrome is not dangerous and doesn’t affect brain development, and as long as they’re doing tummy time, most little ones grow out of it on their own by around six months, when they’re rolling over and starting to sit up.īut if they don’t grow out of it, they end up with a permanently misshapen head, so some simple early intervention is the route that many families take. A 2013 study in Calgary found that almost of half of babies between the ages of seven and 12 weeks had a flat spot. The number of babies with the condition has soared in the past 15 years or so, because babies are put to sleep on their backs, which is the safest and only recommended sleeping position. Plagiocephaly, or flat head syndrome as it’s commonly known, is when a baby’s head has a flat spot or is misshapen. He also had a small flat spot on the right side of his head,” says the Toronto mom. “The paediatrician noticed Henry had a tendency to lean his head to the left, which can be a symptom of tight neck muscles from always keeping his head turned to the right when he was on his back.
That’s what Cloey Bradcliff* discovered at her son Henry’s* two-month checkup. But a softer skull means your baby may end up with a flat spot on their head in the first few months of life, simply from the pressure of lying on a mattress, or in a car seat or baby swing.
Newborns are born with fairly thin, flexible bony plates instead of hard skulls, which makes them all the easier to squueeeze through the birth canal. Lots of babies have asymmetrical or pointy heads-and it’s totally normal.