Thread: flat spot

I know "back to sleep" is suppose to prevent sids and all but kessler's getting a flat spot now. i do lay him down with his head to the side but he usually ends up with his face looking straight up. i don't remember abby getting much of one, but i was also working and didn't have time to obsess over it. anyone else's baby getting a little flattening?

I've been working really hard with Gillian to avoid one ... Annabelle had one that almost needed a helmet to correct and it was obvious from the front. I place extra blankets under the playmat, ensure she spends equal time looking to both sides, and the more time spent upright the better, either jumper or exersaucer or bumbo or similar seats. Also because hers was to the side, after we had the carseat straps tightened, we had to work a recieving blanket under the straps behind her on the flat side to force her to stay turned the other way.

This is Annabelle from the front - you can see the lack of symmetry in the shape:

And this is he head from the top. She's around 3.5 mo in these photos:

Markus sleeps on his tummy and does a lot of tummy time so his head is very rounded. My other kids always slept on their sides. I hate the back to sleep campaign, they need to advocate for side sleeping as well since there are so many kids getting the flat head condition. I know a few 8 year olds that still have a misshapen head because their parents always had them on their backs. Try to keep baby upright a lot during the day (bumbo, highchair, bouncy seat, carrying) and side sleeping at night. If not, keep padding under their head.

his is upright a good bit and i added more blankets under his playmat to help. I started laying him on his side since he falls asleep in my arms that way. It's not really bad at this point just a little spot, so i hope i can correct it. I've been thinking about tummy sleeping but DH is scared. i thought maybe he could nap on his belly since i can monitor him better during naps and now his neck is much stronger.

As long as he is on a tight fitted sheet and you can hear him when he wakes tummy sleeping is PERFECTLY fine. Babies that die of SIDS also die on their backs. You risk suffocation only if he's on frumpy blankets and you don't come to him as soon as he wakes (otherwise they can't hold their heads up and go face down eventually). Markus is right next to us in his crib so the moment he so much as moves we bring him into our bed. I'm not worried at all with tummy sleeping, it's not actually the cause of SIDS, SIDS is known to be a defect in the brain that regulates breathing.... I think they promote it more for parents who are half drunk/passed out and need a screaming baby to wake them. Babies prefer to sleep on their sides/tummies, if on their backs they prefer an incline. Their natural position to sleep is curled up beside mom next to the breast. I slept on my tummy as a baby and almost everyone from that generation did.

My kids have never had a problem with a flat spot and they always sleep on their backs. Our old pediatrician told us after DS was born that most babies tend to turn their head a certain way when they lay on their back so she said every other night lay the baby on the opposite end of the crib. So one night the baby will sleep with their head turned to the right and then a couple of nights later you flip the direction they lay in and the babies head will turn to the left. This also all depends on whether your baby will actually turn their head when they are sleeping and doesn't lay right on the back of their head. You mentioned that he does end up that way anyways so I'm not sure if it would work with him, but maybe worth a try. We did it with DS and he never got a flat spot, but we haven't done it with Sophia and she hasn't gotten one either even though she tends to sleep on the back of her head too so I wonder if it all just depends on how soft the babies skull is or something.

I am completely fine with tummy sleeping!! Aidan doesn't sleep on his tummy... he prefers his side or in my bed tucked up next to me (again on his side). However, his sisters (when they weren't sleeping with me) all preferred their tummy. We just made sure that baby was on a nice tight, thin blanket.

some of it is probably my fault because he spent a lot of his naps in the rock-n-play but he was fighting a cold and had a stuffy nose for what seemed like forever and sleeping inclined like that helped his breathing, however, they tend to sleep on the back of their heads if inclined. I just peaked in on him and he still has his head turned to the side, so maybe he's getting out of the habbit of sleeping on the back of his head.

Originally Posted by L.Miller

some of it is probably my fault because he spent a lot of his naps in the rock-n-play but he was fighting a cold and had a stuffy nose for what seemed like forever and sleeping inclined like that helped his breathing, however, they tend to sleep on the back of their heads if inclined. I just peaked in on him and he still has his head turned to the side, so maybe he's getting out of the habbit of sleeping on the back of his head.

If you look at the reviews on Amazon, the Rock-n-Plays are notorious for causing neck problems and flat heads. I was hesitant on getting one after reading the reviews until I read somewhere that the new one's that came out have been fixed, but can't remember where I saw it. I have the pink one which is their newer style. The yellow one's though are supposedly still causing problems.