Transcript: Tips to Help Prevent Flathead in Infants or a Misshapen Head

This is a text transcript from The First Time Mum’s Chat podcast. The episode is called Tips to Help Prevent Flathead in Infants or a Misshapen Head and you can click on the link to view the full episode page, listen to the episode and view the show notes.

Helen Thompson: This is Helen Thompson here. Thank you for being here today. If you’re already subscribed to the show, thank you so, so much mums, you always are amazing and if you are here for the first time, make sure you subscribe to the show. You will find First Time Mum’s Chat on all the main platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon as well as now on YouTube.

Today I’m bringing you the second of two episodes with an amazing woman, Austin Rees. Austin has been supporting families for more than 20 years and has a wide repertoire as a craniosacral therapy practitioner, an international board certified lactation consultant, baby wearing educator, as well as tummy time method professional. She has a lot of experience.

Combining her expertise in lactation, baby wearing and craniosacral therapy, Austin is able to offer comprehensive care and support to families. During this episode, you’ll hear Austin share tips from her vast experience, specifically around how she helps families faced with flat head in infants or a misshapen head.

Now let’s meet Austin and get on to this interview.

Hi Austin and welcome back to First Time Mum’s Chat. It’s a pleasure to have you here again. In the last episode, we spoke all about tummy time and colic, which was very beneficial and great for mums, but today we are going to be talking about a topic that I don’t know very much about and I’m very keen to learn from you because I know there are a lot of mums out there who have these issues and it is to do with misshapen heads. So, can I start by just getting you to tell me a little bit about how you can help a baby with a misshapen head.

Austin Rees: Thank you Helen for inviting me to come back and chat about the subject to o. My background is I’m a parent to four children and I have a background in lactation as an international board certified lactation consultant, I’m a licensed massage therapist in the state of Maryland, and I’m also a craniosacral therapist.

Parents will bring their babies into my office when they may have a concern or have heard about misshapen heads or what they call flat head syndrome. Just changes in the skull that makes it flat or just change the shape a little bit and for me to just see what I’m noticing.

So babies who come in and what I look for or ask questions about are, how the parent carried during their pregnancy. Sometimes babies who are low or in one position for quite some time, they grow in the position that they have. So they just may come out and have a preference of looking one direction over another and a lot of the babies with parents who come in, with this concern are noticing that their baby really prefers and likes to look in one direction over another.

When that happens, they may have more weight and time on their skull on that side, which will make it flatter on that side. Then we notice a little bit of a bulge on the opposite side. Some ways and reasons why babies have these challenges in the skull is position in the parent’s body.

It can be from the birth, it can be from a shortening of one of the muscles in the neck. So with that shortening, the head tilts in that one direction or favors looking in a direction. It can also be from using baby furniture a lot. Being in one position and leaning back when babies are small and young, those heads are very malleable and so they can move and shift a little bit so that they can get out of the birth canal. So they’re still a little soft and so there’s the time for it to move and change.

Then also it can be babies that were multiples, more than one baby in the womb, there’s less room. So we see that often or with premature babies who have been in the NICU and have had a little extra time with their head on a surface and so that makes a little bit different shape on the head.

Helen Thompson: You mentioned the birth canal. If they’ve had a difficult birth, or when they pull the baby out, can that have an effect on the shape of the skull, or the shape of the face?

Austin Rees: It could. I have worked with families who have had a forceps or even a vacuum and either the shape of the skull is still kind of poked out from where the vacuum was, or that there was an indention where the forceps were. So when we have a challenging birth coming into this world, our body is going to protect it. So if there’s a pool on one side or the other, the body is going to then protect it and keep it still. When that happens, that fascia over those muscles will kind of stay in that position and so baby is more comfortable not using that side. It’s kind of like if you’ve ever slept weird and you can’t look one direction and you may be driving and you have to turn your head to see if any traffic is coming.

So when you go to look, your whole body goes with you to see if any traffic is coming. So a baby may have a tightness in their body and when they move and it’s just all kind of going one way that is something that I’ll observe if the baby’s on their tummy early and they press up really high. It looks as if the baby may be really strong, but what we’re seeing is that tension pattern, that tightness is keeping them in that one position, kind of like us with a sore neck trying to look for traffic. So because there may be that tightness and that tension in the body, they don’t want to use that side. So they prefer, and that’s where we’ll see some crown molding and misshapenness because of the preference to one side.

Helen Thompson: So if a mum came to you to correct that, how many sessions would a mum need to correct it? Is it something that is done in one session or does it take a couple of sessions?

Austin Rees: That is a great question. It really depends. So the earlier, the more we see a change. So within those first three months, that’s when the skull is the most malleable. So if we really get to do some work in those first three months, then we’re good to go.

So coming in, it really depends on the severity of it. It works on the tension of the body, what I’m working on, where I find that tightness, using craniosacral therapy. My fingers are trained to feel where that tension pattern is. I use really soft, gentle movements. The most pressure I use is about five grams of pressure, which is the equivalent of balancing a nickel on my finger.

With that gentle movement, I’m relieving those restrictions so that the baby can turn to that difficult direction so that we can have a little bit more weight on the back of the head or on the side of the head because they’re more comfortable. There are times especially when babies come to me a little later, where there’s not as much change I can do, so I may hit a plateau and I would refer out if they’re interested in something to, some families use a helmet or a doc band, or I’ve even heard of a rock band.

Really, depending on what country or what is available, there is also ways that they will create a helmet stops growth and the movement pressure on the bulging outside and gives way so that the skull can move out and grow into another opening and that is more for cosmetic. What I do is I also find what is causing the baby to want to look one direction over another or just lie back up against the back of the head and reduce that restriction finding the root cause. The misshapen skull or the flat spots are a symptom of something in the body. So there’s a twist in the body and I take care of that. So even if a family goes in just to get a helmet or just to get a band to change the shape of the head, that does not change the body and how that symptom came to be.

Helen Thompson: Yeah, I’m a great believer in more holistic therapies rather than what you said, the helmet, but every parent has to choose what they want to do. I’ve heard how good craniosacral therapy is for that, because it is so gentle and it’s not hurting a baby. A lot of mums, when I talk to them about craniosacral therapy, they say, Oh, but you know, it would be really painful for the baby, it will really hurt the baby. What I’ve picked up by speaking to you, and also Meaghan Beames, she’s another craniosacral therapist, she’s told me that it’s very soft, very gentle, and it doesn’t hurt the baby at all. In fact, it’s relaxing in some ways for the baby.

Austin Rees: It can be. It’s a treat when I have a baby fall asleep. Today I had one who generally, we have a lot of pauses in the middle of our treatments for feeding or for comfort because he was having a lot of challenges and just uncomfortable in his body. Today being able to turn him to his side and doing some work with him, he fell asleep right on me where I could work.

I had an eight year old in my office the other day, who was squirming and talking and everything and then all of a sudden he was asleep on my table. It’s a great modality that’s going to make big changes and shifts and it’s gentle and comfortable for the baby or the child or the adult who is receiving the care. Also with babies who have these brilliantly malleable skulls, we’re making sure that there’s no restrictions or pooling so that they can grow in the optimal way.

Muscle tells bone where to grow. So if a muscle is pulling one way, it’s going to change the shape of the bone. So looking over the whole body and bringing ease into the body really helps have comfort in their body. Then also, talking with parents on what positions they are in at home as well. So there’s functional things that they can do at home, not just coming for body work from chiropractic care or myofascial therapy or craniosacral therapy. What positions are they being fed in, when they go to sleep. I often ask parents, where does baby sleep during the day and in what position and where does baby sleep at night and in what positions? So learning, maybe we can change and have some time on the body doing some baby wearing napping or on the body on the parent, if they are having a lot of time in a bassinet or crib where they may be having a lot of pressure on the skull, having some time up on a caregiver if they’re able to, so that there’s no pressure during that sleep time. Or if they’re in a bassinet by the bed, I ask the parent, if the baby is going to look at you, in their bassinet, what direction would that be? If that is their preferred direction, maybe spinning baby around so that they instinctually look for their caregiver, that they may look and turn the opposite way so they’re not always having pressure on that one side.

Helen Thompson: I was just thinking when you were talking then about car seats. If you leave a baby in a car seat for too long, let’s say you go for a hundred kilometer or a hundred mile drive and the baby’s in the car seat, when you arrive at your destination, take the baby out of the car seat and just have a little crawl around or lie on the floor or even have a cuddle is a good idea. If you leave them in that car seat for too long, you were talking about positioning and different ways they’re lying, leaving them in a car seat for too long after you’ve stopped driving would not be recommended.

Austin Rees: It is not, yeah, limiting time in any type of container. Clearly car seats are one of those things, we’re going to be in the car until we get where we’re going. We’re going to take some stops if it’s for a trip or something like that but limiting those times in swings, car seats, bouncer seats, anything that’s going to keep baby in a position where their shoulders kind of come together in this curved position, we really want them to open up and that’s why having time on parent’s chest, opens up those shoulders. Opens them up or even time in tummy time opens up their shoulders, gives them different movement or different placement of the head on the floor as well when doing tummy time. So doing tummy time and baby wearing and holding and sleeping in different positions can really help a baby who is having a preference looking one direction or having their head in one direction when they’re sleeping on a flat surface.

Helen Thompson: Yeah, we mentioned tummy time in the last episode. Yeah, it helps a lot with so many different things and encouraging mums to have that skin to skin as you mentioned in the last episode as well, I think is such a valuable tool for any mum to have it and it’s also that nice feeling of being cuddled because babies love to be touched, they actually thrive on that. They really enjoy being touched and cuddled. Some babies may not, but generally speaking, babies love to be touched and cuddled.

Austin Rees: They do, having that time and I’ve heard parents say, oh, I let them sleep on me during a nap time. I’m like, that’s great, that’s what they come in this world expecting to be on their caregiver’s chest. So, if you’re able to have those napping times where they can be on you or in the baby carrier, having that upright time is a great way to lessen time on the head. Since we’ve had the back to sleep campaign or safe sleep campaign where babies are on their back, we are noticing more of this misshapen heads. They have found that about 46. 6% of babies will have some sort of flat spot on their head, which is almost 1 in 2 babies!

So it’s a big percentage and they’ve noticed it more since that back to sleep campaign. So, being able to have some body work for comfort to look in both directions. So if they’re sleeping on their back, they’re not just right on the back of the head, but that they can look to their left and their right, can be comforting.

I also just want to share with parents that if you have any concerns about your child’s shape of their head, advocate for them, ask the pediatrician to give a referral for body work, physiotherapy, working with a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, craniosacral therapist, somebody who can help get baby comfortable in their body.

Also just making those changes, those functional changes in the house, in living with baby, making sure that they’re not in those baby containers or the car seat too long, so that they can have some more movement. Movement is key and time on the belly is key and limiting those containers is key.

Helen Thompson: Thank you Austin, you’ve given us some amazing tips and I hope that the audience will now go to your Nourish & Align website and have a look at all your wonderful tips that you have on there, because I’ve looked at your website and you’ve got some really, really good tips on there. So, once again, thank you so much for being on this podcast and sharing your expertise, I’ve really, really enjoyed talking with you and thank you very, very much for being here.

Austin Rees: Thank you, Helen. It’s been a pleasure.

Helen Thompson: Thanks mums, you’re amazing and I hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to have a listen to my earlier chat with Austin where we talked about how she helps families faced with infant tummy troubles and tummy time challenges.

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