Flat Head in Newborns: The 3 Positional Cranial Deformities
The term flat head in newborns indicates that the baby's skull has become flattened and deformed.
To be precise, when we talk about flat head in newborns we are referring to what, in medical terms, are called positional cranial deformations .
There are 3 different types of flat head in newborns, which are created based on the incorrect position assumed by the child: positional plagiocephaly , positional brachycephaly and positional dolichocephaly.
In this article you can discover a lot of information about the flat head of newborns:
- What types of flatheads exist,
- what is it caused by?
- how to treat it effectively
Why is it called flat head in newborns?
As we have said, flat head is the term “vulgarly” used to define all those cranial deformations caused by an incorrect posture maintained for too long by the newborn.
Simply put, the newborn's head has flattened posteriorly at the occipital level due to excessive time spent in incorrect positions.
If we analyze the terms of the word we can better understand the problem:
-
Cranial deformations : indicates that the shape of the head is worse than normal;
- Positional : allows us to understand that the cause of these alterations derives from the incorrect posture of the child who always keeps his head in the same position for a long time.
There are 3 types of flat head:
- plagiocephaly,
- brachycephaly
- dolichocephaly
Unfortunately, they are so widespread that, according to statistics, almost 1 in 2 newborns experiences one of these problems in the first months of their life.
Flat Head in Newborns: The Real Causes
In the first months of life, the baby's head grows quickly and is very malleable , which is why incorrect postures maintained for too long risk flattening the baby's head.
But why does the child assume incorrect postures? This is the real question we must ask ourselves.
There are mainly two reasons:
- The child is led to assume incorrect postural attitudes as a result of incorrect behaviors implemented by the parents in an unconscious manner .
This category includes, for example, the use of a bouncer for a long time, the use of a baby seat, the positions the baby is held in the arms, how the bottle is given, how the baby is held during breastfeeding, etc.
2. The newborn assumes incorrect positions on its own, usually due to muscle contractures or stiff joints in the neck.
Myogenic torticollis , for example, causes the child to keep his head tilted or turned always to the same side, leading to the development of deformations if not treated promptly.
Other times, muscle contractures are created due to incorrect postures that parents unconsciously put into practice (e.g.: how the child is held in their arms) and continue throughout the day and during nighttime rest, forcing the child to keep his head turned to the same side or straight towards the ceiling (without rotating it often during sleep).
Now that we have identified the causes of changes in the shape of the baby's skull, we can look in detail at the 3 types of flat head in newborns .
Positional plagiocephaly
The best known type of flat head in newborns is certainly positional plagiocephaly.
The word plagiocephaly comes from the Greek and literally means “ oblique head ”.
In fact, it represents the posterolateral flattening of the child's skull due to constant pressure from the occipito-parietal region of the head.
Initially the head flattens posterolaterally but, as the condition worsens, the lateral part of the skull and the face also become deformed.
This type occurs when the child always keeps his face turned to the same side when in a supine position.
How to spot it?
To understand if your baby's head is flattening and developing positional plagiocephaly, you need to do a head assessment.
Here are some guidelines on how a newborn's head should look:
- The contours should be curved and symmetrical between right and left.
- The shape should be rounded and with an antero-posterior diameter slightly longer than the lateral-lateral diameter.
- Seen from the side, the front profile must be well curved and continue in this way also into the posterior occipital area.
In case of plagiocephaly , looking from above it will be possible to verify that there is a flattening in the posterolateral area in the occipital region.
If not treated promptly, the entire skull will change shape, taking on the appearance of a parallelepiped and also causing changes to the child's face.
In fact, the ears may appear asymmetrical, one eye may appear smaller and an area of the forehead may appear more prominent.