Positional Plagiocephaly

What Is Positional Plagiocephaly?

Positional plagiocephaly is a disorder in which the back or one side of an infant's head is flattened, often with little hair growing in that area. It is usually caused when a baby spends a lot of time lying on his back or is frequently left in a position where his head is resting against a flat surface (such as in cribs, strollers, and playpens). Because infants' heads are soft to allow for incredible brain growth in the first year of life, they are susceptible to being "molded" into a flat shape. The rates of plagiocephaly among children are rising dramatically due to the Back to Sleep to Prevent SIDS campaign. Putting your child on their back while sleeping is great, but with all that constant pressure on the back of their heads now, you need to know how to prevent plagiocephaly with switching up their positioning from side to side. Most new mothers get NO information on this coming out of the hospital, and the need for corrective devices is becoming all too common.

If you have a concern, talk to your doctor. Most doctors will tell you that your babies head will 'round out' on it's own. This is rarely true, by the 7-8th month your babies head will start to harden and fuse the skull bones making this disorder PERMANENT. As I will state later in the post, regular physicians aren't even allowed to make diagnosed opinions on your child's headshape, they have to refer you to a neurologist, neurosurgeon or a pediatrician with experience in cranial clinics.

I myself had it at birth, and I still have a mishapen skull and someone non-symmetrical features, all because my parents were told it would ROUND OUT, and it never did, and it still causes me discomfort, it's the cause of my poor eye sight, my TMJ, and my facial features are a little asymmetrical as well although not many people can point it out. I can't lay on hard surfaces because the bumps hurt.

In fact in the positional plagiocephaly yahoo group I am in, there was a poll taken to see how many people tried repositioning with no corrective band first and how it had worked.

'Letting it Round Out' only worked for [i]4% of the people[/i] who tried it on that website (There's over 500 parents with children with plagio there) Many parents who were told to just let their children's heads round out naturally ended up having to do a last minute attempt at corrective devices, but these didn't do as much because they waited until their children were almost too old to do it.

In many cases the plagiocephaly is so bad that you can't just ignore it and it needs corrective devices. That is how Treyton and thousands of babies across North America are. If you leave plagiocephaly and it gets worse it can cause facial deformations and problems with brain growth.

What is the average cost for corrective devices?
$3000 US dollars.
And that's JUST for the band or helmet.
It would cost a lot more once you add on neurosurgeon visits, cat scans, etc. It's a lot better to just do some research into it, read up on how to prevent it and stop it from even happening in the first place.

So new parents, limit the amount of time your child spends in things like car seats, strollers, etc. and switch their position in their crib. Start them on tummy time early and hold them up so that there isn't any pressure on their head as much as you can. This condition is preventable unless your child is born with torticollis (shortened or weakened neck muscles on one side that causes them to prefer laying on one side of their head only)

If any one wants any more information on it, I currently work with the provider of these custom head bands (Cranial Tech) and the hospitals and clinics in my area trying to provide information and pamphlets to new mothers, so I have some extra pamphlets on plagiocephaly and tummy time kicking around my house, as well as physician assessment forms if you were interested in talking to your doctor about it, it shows how to determine the degree of plagio, brachio or cranio (other types of the same thing) and when to make a referral. [b]Your doctor cannot diagnose it, but can and has to make a referral to someone who can diagnose it if the parent is concerned. [/b]

You can search for a physician who you can get a referral to on this website as well, so instead of telling the doctor you want a referral you can say "I want a referral to this doctor at this clinic" so you know you'll be getting someone experienced in it.

Most nurses and doctors won't even point it out because it's kind of hard to say "there's something wrong with the shape of your childs' head",so until we can further awareness and education on it (There's a pretty big group of us plagio moms working with Cranial Tech fighting to further education on plagio across Canada and America) it's up to you to be educated on it, and up to you to work to prevent it.

[url]http://www.petitiononline.com/0799/petition.html[/url] This petition is for the American Academy of Pediatrics to try and give better information and awareness concerning plagiocephaly to new mothers leaving the hospital, as well as education to most doctors about it so that it can be caught earlier (almost every doctor I talked to was like, "plagio wha huh??") They're pretty ignorant about the subject (hence the fact that they're not qualified enough to make a proper diagnosis)

[url]http://www.plagiocephaly.info/[/url] Go here for a good resource of information on the types of plagiocephaly, how to prevent it, etc

[url]http://www.cranialtech.com[/url] Cranial Tech is the producer of the custom head bands that most parents use for corrective devicing. They're actually very informative and very active in trying to help get the awareness out there to prevent plagio. They're the company that sent me a huge box of information resources to hand out to new mothers for free.

[url]http://www.plagiocephaly.org[/url] You can search for a qualified pediatrician with experience in this area on this website, search by location to find one near you.

[url]http://www.cappskids.org/CAPPSPlagioHandout.PDF[/url] A great handout explaining all aspects of plagiocephaly.

[url]http://www.cappskids.org/CAPPSPlagioPreventionHandout.PDF[/url] A great handout on how to prevent it.

That way you won't be stuck in the situation I'm in, having to decide between leaving it and causing problems later or spending 3000$ trying to fix it.

Enjoy, and remember, [i]proper education is the key and is your responsibility[/i] when the resources and awareness aren't available to you by doctors and nurses. It's up to you to notice it and get things done about it, and it's up to you to prevent it in the first place.