Parents of infants: One more thing to be concerned about - flat heads

[phylny]

Excerpt:

..."The mysterious device Nolan wears is known as a DOC (short for Dynamic Orthotic Cranioplasty) Band. The $3,000 headpiece is designed to gently guide young, misshapen heads back to a more symmetrical shape.

"Nolan, whose pediatrician first recognized his head problem when he was 9 months old, was diagnosed with a condition known as plagiocephaly. Stemming from the Greek word meaning "oblique head," the medical term refers to the flattening of a baby's head because of pressure put on his still-soft skull. A bird's-eye view of plagiocephalic children reveals a parallelogram shape to the head.

"Plagiocephaly is one of three main positional head deformities that result from outside pressure. Others include brachycephalym, in which the deformity is a wider, shorter head shape; and scaphocephaly, a long, narrow head shape.

"They all have the same cause: pressure from being in the same position too often and too long. In some cases, plagiocephaly occurs in utero before birth. In others, it develops after birth if the baby is continually placed in the same position while sleeping or spends extended periods of time on his back in car seats or strollers. "

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/01/25/features_gohealthy-25heflatbaby-01-25.html

[SoCalDem]

1. My babies were all c-sections and only 2 had round heads

and my youngest had an odd shaped head.. Looking down on the top of his head it looked kind of triangular.. I freaked out and asked the pediatician what was wrong with his head.. he said "noting"...it was just a variation of "normal".. He was right, but it still is not a round "apple-head" like his brothers'. He's got an IQ of 160-something, graduated summa cum laude, can do calculus without paper/pencil..

but it freaked me OUT..

this is him at 17

[Ilsa]

2. My kids slept next to me or on me in bed, able to move their

moves during sleep. I was nursing them and the sleep interaction prevented SIDS. The both have nice-shaped heads, but I consider that a bonus, not a goal.