This occurs in approximately 20 per cent of infants at seven weeks of age. Treating the torticollis will often help to improve the plagiocephaly as your child is able to sleep more comfortably in different positions. Plagiocephaly is a term for a misshapen head in infants. Infants born with harlequin ichthyosis may also have a flat nose (depressed nasal bridge), abnormal hearing, frequent respiratory infections, and decreased joint mobility. If your child has torticollis, he may habitually sleep in one position and develop plagiocephaly. The ears may appear to be misshapen or missing, but are really fused to the head by the thick skin.
This occurs because babies are born with soft skull.
In the majority of cases, physical therapy to straighten and stretch the neck will straighten the head and head posture. Deformational or positional plagiocephaly describes when a babys head becomes misshapen or flattened. Torticollis literally means “a tight neck” and can be seen when there are structural anomalies such as fused or hemivertebrae, or most commonly as a completely isolated anomaly. Leaving extra room around the flat area of the head allows the skull and brain to grow back into the normal shape that they were genetically programmed to do.ĭeformational plagiocephaly can be associated with torticollis. Helmet therapy works by fitting the skull tightly with a specially designed helmet in all areas except where it is flat.
These soft bones allow for the rapid brain growth that occurs during the first year of life. They may have head swelling or bruising from a difficult birth. A parent may first describe it only as a weird head shape, but a surgeon experienced in craniofacial abnormalities will recognize the misshapen head as a. When babies are born, the bones in their head are very soft. If repositioning is not successful in addressing the problem, or if the deformation is moderate or severe and persists beyond six months, then helmet therapy may be required. Sometimes babies are born with a slightly flat spot on their head. In most babies with deformational plagiocephaly due to sleeping position, simple repositioning of the child to place them off the flattened area will resolve the problem.
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