Head shape irregularities
A normal baby head shape looks a little bit like an egg when you look down at it from above: symmetrical and wider at the back and narrower at the front. The medical term for a baby’s head with normal dimensions and proportions are Normocephaly. If your baby does not appear to have Normocephaly, it might be that your baby has a type of flat head syndrome or another condition causing their irregular head shape.
The bones in a baby’s skull are soft and the pressure of lying in the same sleeping position or during birth can cause their head to change shape. Parents usually notice a flat head in babies at around eight weeks of age, when they notice that their baby’s head seems slightly wide, the ear is pushed forward on one side, or the brow is more prominent. There are different categories, depending on which part of the head has flattened. A baby might show more than one of these at once.
Where does my baby fit in?
Not all babies fit neatly into these categories. Typically, babies are brought to us with a combination of brachycephaly and plagiocephaly, but we sometimes see a combination of scaphocephaly and plagiocephaly too. This doesn’t mean that a baby has two types of flat head syndrome; it just describes the position of the flattening. Some researchers tend to mix these two different types of deformities, putting them together under one ‘flat head syndrome’ umbrella. At Technology in Motion, we always classify each head shape so that we know exactly where to allow the head to grow during treatment. We monitor treatment carefully and provide detailed reports so parents know exactly how their children are progressing.
Do the Different Types of Flat Head Syndrome Need to be Treated?
Here at Technology in Motion, we see a variety of baby head shapes of different severities. Some parents catch their baby’s flat head syndrome very early on in which case we recommend utilising repositioning techniques to correct the plagiocephaly or brachycephaly. These techniques are usually successful when started at an early age and when the flat head syndrome condition is still relatively mild.
However, although these measures are often successful for mild cases, they often aren’t enough to correct more severe cases of flat head syndrome in babies, particularly if repositioning techniques haven’t worked thus far. In such circumstances, our effective cranial helmet treatment can work wonders in correcting a head shape, as long as babies are between the age of 4 and 14 months, with the best results being achieved between 4 and 7 months of age.