Help with Flat Head

[GuavaGirl]

My son has flat head on one side due to torticollis. We've been treating the torticollis with physical therapy and that's been improving and going really well. Now, I'm just concerned about his head shape. My pediatrician says that there's nothing you can do to correct it, you can only prevent it from getting worse by keeping him off of his head and using different cushions/positioners when he has to be on his head. ...and that it MIGHT get a little better as his skull continues to grow without the pressure on that right side, in the next few months. He's 5 months old now.

Is that true? Is he really always going to have flatness on one side of his head? She said that it's not severe enough to be approved for a helmet. I just feel awful that I've permanently damaged my son's head shape. (In his evaluations they've graded him as being a mild case...but it's still noticeable) ...and I'm wondering if there is something more that I can do.

Any thoughts?

[71newmom]

my son (now 3) had torticollis and went through pt also. he had mild to moderate plagiocephaly. Where I'm from, there is a place called cranial technologies, that fit the helmets and provide education to parents as to the options available. We had our son evaluated to see if he needed a helmet. It was determined that he was borderline and we ended up not doing it. His head shape has evened out now. You wouldn't even know. Go to cranialtech.com to see if there's a clinic in your area. They really know their stuff and helped us out a lot, even though we didn't go with the helmet. I think the evaluations are free.

[71newmom]

I also found this website to be useful:

www.torticolliskids.org

[GuavaGirl]

Cranial tech looks like a great company. I wish they were closer.
The closest is 11 hours away, so that's probably not going to work.
Bummer.

[Bellabaz]

I don't know if this would be any different from pt but what about an osteopath?

[is it puppies?]

My girl had/has torticollis but I had no idea it was actually anything to worry about until I saw this thread! I think it was due to a tilt in her head at birth (which caused her to almost be stuck) and anyways to make a long story short, we happened to take her to our chiropractor "just because" when she was less than a week old and have taken her at least once a week since (she's only 4 weeks now) and she is fairly straight now though it appears she still sometimes favours sleeping with her head to one side. At my chiro's suggestion I give her neck muscles a little massage often and I also try to keep her head to the other side frequently.

So not that I have any knowledge about how to fix flat head (I hope it works out for you!) but for anybody else who searches torticollis, I recommend chiropractic right away! My chiro does active release if that makes any difference.

[Pookietooth]

Cranial sacral has worked wonders on my dd's head shape. The sooner you start the better though, so I'd call tomorrow.