Why I care about your baby’s flat head so much!

Flat heads in babies, aka plagiocephaly, is more common now than ever! Have you wondered why this might be? I’m going to tell you today why I care so much about your baby’s flat head.

Unfortunately, many medical providers are not up to date with the most recent research on flat heads during infancy. This is concerning to me because they are then providing you with the incorrect and outdated information!

There was a time when it was thought flat heads are purely cosmetic. That there were no underlying changes in brain function associated with flat heads. If you’ve been told this by your health provider, I encourage you to do some of your own research (you could try PubMed and search for plagiocephaly).

There is significant research now linking flat head babies with some delays in development that appears to last all the way into school years. I know many mothers might find that information distressing and I apologise for that. It appears to depend on the child as to where the delay may occur, but research has found a common theme in motor skills, balance and coordination, spatial awareness and even auditory processing. As a mother myself, I’d want to know this early on so I can do everything in my power to prevent delays in my flat head child. And let me be clear, you can have a child with developmental delay who never had a flat head. This is not a solitary link, the brain is a complicated thing.

It is my opinion that plagiocephaly is only occasionally as simple as having the baby turn their head one way more than the other. I believe there are a number of different underlying triggers and a baby must be looked at holistically to uncover what is happening in their individual system for them to present with a head preference and/or flat head.