You want your baby to be seeing the world from a symmetrical view – not always to one side. Prop baby’s head whenever feasible (car seats, sitting in any seat, or swing). Positioning your baby’s head straight is very important. Can you imagine just seeing the world from your back (either lying down or sitting up supported at your back)? It would be pretty limiting! Think belly time – belly time – belly time! She also sees the world in a different way and this helps her brain to develop and starts to get her ready to crawl.

Belly time allows your baby to get up off her head and naturally stretch her neck muscles. When awake, you should give your baby a healthy dose of belly time. What YOU Can Do To Help A Crooked Neck or Misshapen Headīelly Time – I believe the reason we see a dramatic increase in the plagiocephaly is due to lack of position changes for your baby – this may be a very EASY fix! I see parents who hear that their baby should sleep on their back to prevent SIDS, carry this over to baby’s waking time – so baby never gets any belly time. I am going to deal with some of the positioning, physical therapy and CranioSacral Therapy options in this article. There are a variety of treatments such as positioning, exercises, physical therapy (PT), CranioSacral Therapy, neck devices (for CMT) and helmets (for plagiocephaly). If you suspect that your baby has torticollis or plagiocephaly, a visit to your pediatrician may be in order to rule out more serious conditions. twins or a big baby and small mom), a traumatic birth and low amniotic fluid. The most common causes of CMT are inutero positioning, lack of space (i.e. This campaign has produced a dramatic decrease in the cases of SIDS, but now there is a dramatic increase in deformation of the skull.

One of the reasons we are seeing an increase in plagiocephaly is that more babies are sleeping on their backs due to the ‘back sleep campaign” started in 1992 to decrease the cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). You may also see a change in the head shape so that one side of the head appears more forward than the other or other changes, which is referred to as ‘plagiocephaly’.

Plagiocephaly is sometimes seen in conjunction with the CMT. This muscle controls head rotation and tilt.īasically in CMT, you may not realize there is any problem until the baby starts to display the characteristic head ‘tilt’ to one side or you see that your baby is always sleeping with her head to the same side or your pediatrician tells you about it. CMT is a shortening of one of the sternocleidomastoid muscles in the front of the neck. There are various types of torticollis and I will be talking about the most common found in infants, it is called “Congenital Muscular Torticollis” (CMT). If you see that your baby is not holding her head in an upright position or may have limited neck motion, she may have ‘torticollis’ (meaning twisted neck) and or ‘plagiocephaly’ (flat or crooked head).

Baby misshapen head