Re: Re: I am wondering.... Tim Littlefield

[Guest guest]

Tim,

My son Josh is in a DOC, we go to Paramus.

Got a question, could this be hereditary? I stated

in a previous post today, for the first, I noticed one

of my eyes is rounder than the other, and my ears are

off too! But hey at least it didn't take me 35 years

to get Josh diagnosed! Let me know what you think,

just curious!

Jill (Mom to Josh & Jarred, Accord, NY)

--- timlittlefield@... wrote:

>

> > what makes some kids prone to plagio and not

> others. It's not like

> > Genna spent the first months of her life laying on

> her back 24/7

> > (although she has always hated being on her tummy

> for some reason,

> > she was held alot and I even had her nap in a

> sling on my hip lots

> of

> > times so she could be upright). I'm sure there

> are babies that

> spent

> > far more time on their backs that have round

> heads.

> >

> > My sister's kids pretty much lived in their

> carriers and their

> heads

> > were always nice and round.

> >

> > Could it be because she was born at 36w and her

> skull was more

> > malleable?

>

> Today many people will cite back sleeping as the

> cause of positional

> plagiocephaly, yet in reality there are a number of

> different

> factors. Many of the children we treat have a

> combination of these

> risk factors, including:

>

> Back Sleeping: The bedding we use today is much

> firmer, and we are

> advised not to place soft items such as pillows or

> toys in the crib

> with the child. Until recently, very little

> information was provided

> to parents about the importance of supervised tummy

> time, so even

> when the children were awake, they often spent much

> of their time on

> their back on the floor, or in a swing, car seat, or

> infant carrier.

> Although little attention has been paid to car seats

> and swings, the

> surfaces are quite hard and we have treated many

> children whose

> deformities have been traced to spending extended

> periods of time,

> including sleeping in them, for several months.

> Back sleeping can

> also allow a very mild torticollis (see below) to

> deform the head as

> it will pull the head into the same position against

> the mattress

> every night.

>

> Torticollis: Often referred to as wry-neck, in

> essence it means that

> the child has a stiff neck that causes them to have

> a very noticeable

> head tilt and favor turning to one direction. Once

> a proper

> diagnosis is made, neck stretching exercises often

> resolve the

> problem, however " tough-love " on the parent's part

> is required - in

> most cases the child will not like the exercises,

> but they need to be

> done.

>

> In Utero Constraint - This was often felt to be the

> number 1 risk

> factor for plagiocephaly prior to 1992 (When the

> 'Back to Sleep'

> campaign began). An infant's head can become

> deformed in utero by

> becoming engaged in pelvis, or if the child is in a

> breech

> orientation, by becoming wedged under the ribs. In

> the later case,

> the head will take on a long and narrow shape

> (scaphocephalic), often

> with a ledge or prominence at the very back.

> Sometimes the in utero

> restriction does not deform the head directly, but

> does cause the

> development of a torticollis as discussed above.

>

> Prematurity - As stated in the earlier post, an

> infant's cranium

> becomes much more rigid during the later part of

> pregnancy. In fact,

> the fetal cranial bones increase in stiffness

> tenfold during the last

> 10 weeks of pregnancy. Thus, if a child is born

> premature, his or

> her head is much more malleable than a child

> delivered full term.

> However, there is more to consider - Premature

> infants often spend

> more time in the NICU where their heads are rotated

> side-to-side.

> This can also cause a long, narrow head shape as

> discussed earlier.

> Premature infants also often lag behind in terms of

> developmental

> milestones which may not allow them to reposition

> their heads as

> easily as full term children.

>

> Multiple-Births. My personal favorite (being an

> identical twin

> myself). We have completed several papers that have

> documented that

> multiple birth infants (twins, triplets, and higher)

> are

> significantly more likely to develop plagiocephaly

> than their

> singleton counterparts. From the discussion above,

> you've probably

> guessed why - they have in utero constraint, are

> often premature,

> often spend extended periods of time in the NICU as

> well as have some

> developmental delays, sleep on their back, and have

> a higher

> incidence of torticollis.

>

> While these are not all of the factors, they are the

> most prevalent.

> How other factors, such as genetics, racial

> ancestry, and gender,

> contribute to the development of plagiocephaly

> remains unclear.

>

>

>

> Sincerely,

> Tim Littlefield

> Cranial Technologies, Inc

>

>

>

>

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