Does your baby have positional plagiocephaly? This is the medical term for flat head syndrome which is now very common in young babies. Why is it more common in our generation than that of our parents or grandparents?
Previous generations knew that the younger the baby, the softer the head. Now that babies are told to sleep on their back, they should be sleeping on a soft mattress rather than a firm one. Parents can ensure their baby remains off their face by using a sleepwrap and a headwedge.
Car Seat Stroller Combo
The other main reasons are in order to help prevent cot death, most midwives and childcare professionals advocate making baby sleep on their backs. This position is a lot safer than having babies sleep on their tummies but given the amount of sleep a young baby has, it increases the amount of time spent lying on their skulls. The skull is still developing and thus is very soft so lying in the same position for long periods of time can cause it to flatten. Thirty percent of skulls worldwide do not return to a nice shape and ten percent need surgery.
The second reason for the prevalence of flat head syndrome is the fact that most modern infant travel systems allow parents to transport the child from car to buggy without having to move him from his seat. Thus he spends longer in a similar position.
So how do you prevent your baby developing a flat head? The standard advice is to turn your baby around when he is sleeping. Most babies favour a particular side, so you need to be extra vigilant and try persuading them to sleep on alternate sides. Trying to remember which side baby last slept is difficult enough. I am the mum who had to resort to putting a pin in my bra to remind me which side had last fed baby - trying to remember which side he fell asleep on was one little detail too much.
So I used a sleepwrap and headwedge. This fantastic combo of products was designed to help prevent flat head whilst keeping baby sleeping in the safest position i.e. of the tummy. The head wedge gently encourages baby's head to stay on a certain side. But I also discovered another benefit - it proves a handy reminder advising which position baby last slept in. Anything that helps a sleep deprived mum and her precious baby gets my vote and it is so much more attractive and less traumatic than the helmets, which babies with flat head syndrome often end up wearing for up to twenty three and a half hours a day.