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holland2
08-02-2001, 12:36 PM
Has anyone tried any of the remedies made for preventing flathead forming by the baby sleeping on its back.

kzallison
08-08-2001, 10:15 PM
After seeing an aquaintance's baby with a severely flattened area on the back of his head right before I had my own baby, I had a discussion with my pediatrician about this very topic. His opinion was that "flat head syndrome" easily could be prevented by giving a baby plenty of tummy time while awake. He also recommended using a sling or Baby Bjorn as an alternative to the infant seat carrier on a regular basis. I followed his advice and never saw a hint of flatness on my own child's head. Interestingly, there seemed to be a few nice side effects. My daughter rolled over for the first time at 10 weeks, crawled at 5-1/2 months, and walked at 8-1/2 months, all of which are pretty early. My pediatrician's opinion was that tummy time encourages babies to develop their gross motor skills earlier than babies who spend most of their time propped up in infant seats because they have more incentive to move. They have to lift their heads to see what's around them, and this leads them to reach for objects, etc. I don't know whether that's true, but I can relate that my daughter's motor skills at 2-1/2 years seem to be more advanced than most of her peers. The downside is that toddler gymnastics programs get expensive! Good luck...Karen

lbess
08-10-2001, 10:03 AM
I haven't tried it yet (baby hasn't arrived yet), but we bought the Boppy Noggin Nest to try to address the flat head problem. You're not supposed to use it in a crib or play yard since it's stuffed, but it looks like a good idea for the bouncy seat, etc. I'm sure that plenty of tummy time during waking hours helps, too (and doesn't require extra equipment!)

MonsterMom2
08-27-2001, 02:00 PM
My premature twins got flat heads. In the hospital, they would make sure to lay the babies in different positions to avoid some of the flattening, but it is almost inevitable. My son who spent only six weeks in the hospital had a long head- the sides got flat. The other spent 5 months in the hospital and his head got flat on one side because he would always turn to the direction that the caregivers approached him. When we got him home, we just put him in his crib the opposite way so he would turn his head to the other side.

The flattening corrected itself as both boys became more active.