Hey there parents and new parents to be, listen there's a situation that happens more frequently
than I would like and I don't want you to find yourself in this position. Now the scenario I'm
talking about is when you take your infant, your newborn, to your pediatrician for a general well
check and your pediatrician lets you know that your baby has a problem that you caused. That
feels bad and the great news is that this problem is (for the vast majority of cases) preventable.
Now what I'm talking about is plagiocephaly. It's also known as flat head syndrome and let me grab
my baby. What is happening here is the baby's head is becoming flat on the back or flat on
certain sides, developing a flat spot. The great news about this is that this is preventable.
So, in today's video, we are going to cover why this happens, the causes behind flat-head syndrome
and most importantly the simple little things that you can do and add into your everyday life with
baby. It's not going to be hard but it's going to develop a routine to help prevent this flat head
syndrome. Now, if we haven't met before my name is Alice Turner. I am a doula, a childbirth educator
and on my channel we talk about childbirth and we talk about babies and I'd love for
you to subscribe if you would like to get more content just like this. Now, as you likely know
babies are born with soft moldable skulls. So, they have two soft spots, the fontanels
on the back and on the top of their head. And their skull bones are moldable meaning they can
change shape and move around. Which makes this design really great for that journey through
the birth canal but, it can also lead to easily molding when they are outside of the womb which
is that flat head syndrome that can happen. We can see flathead syndrome cause the cause of that is
baby spending too much time in the same position. So, we all know that it is absolutely best to put
baby on their back for the prevention of SIDS. So, baby does need to spend time on their back
but because of this, sometimes we see flat head syndrome. So, we're going to talk about some easy
ways to counteract this time of sleep on their back. Not just sleeping on their back but time
in car seats. Any of those baby container devices spending a lot of time on those hard surfaces
can lead to that flat head syndrome. The other thing is always holding the baby in the same way
when you are doing activities with the baby. Now this can be hard because we have a dominant hand,
a dominant arm, that feels things sometimes feel right to us. But I want us to think about ways
that we can easily change our behavior to help keep baby's head nice and round. Let's jump to
ways to prevent. So, there are four things that we do with baby all throughout the day and with each
of these things if we can switch side to side side to side left to right for each of these
that's going to help prevent the flat head syndrome. So, we've got feeding. We have
burping, diapering and sleeping. So let's start with feeding. If you're breastfeeding you pretty
normally will switch side to side so baby will spend time on your right baby will spend time on
your left. That's great. Now, if you are bottle feeding a lot of people (myself included) feel
more comfortable feeding a baby with a bottle on our right hand or our dominant hand my case right.
So this feels really good and if we switch this might feel a little strange. However,
that's what we want to do. So maybe half of your feeding you feed baby with your dominant hand
half of your feeding you switch and feed with your other hand. Again the important part
is switch back and forth. Now in the middle of feeding we might be doing some burping. When
we are burping we might want to do we can do our right side burping baby might have their
cheek like this. This spend some time this way then maybe we can switch and do this way.
So we want to switch left right left right left switching up baby and burping.
Now for diapering this is a great hack a lot of times if we have baby on the diaper
the changing table putting changing their diaper we feel comfortable a lot of times with baby on
with their head on one side. Like I really prefer changing a baby with their head is on my left side
and I am changing their baby changing the diaper here. Well when they are
being changed they usually like to turn their head towards noise, towards us and so in this
case the baby is turning towards their right looking at me. Well a little hack is sometimes
change your baby this way, other times put them on the changing table this way. So that they are
turning their head to look at you this way super easy it just takes a little bit of knowing and
changing up your routine to help baby practice the way that they're turning their head. Similarly
with sleeping when we put our baby down in a bassinet in a crib wherever they are sleeping
if you put their head one way say up uh towards this side of wherever they're sleeping in
on Mondays maybe on Tuesdays you switch it this way. And babies are gonna tend to look towards
wherever you come into their space or wherever you're sleeping if they are in a bassinet next
to your bed you can even change the bassinet back and forth. If it if for some reason you
feel like it makes a difference or just change the position of where you're putting baby.
So that say they are sleeping next to your bed and they get hungry they wake up they turn to the left
and then the next day when you have them in their bed they are this way and they turn to the right.
So a little hack just to make that easier. Now let's talk about a couple other things that
you can do, again super easy, but it's really gonna help is tummy time and baby wearing. So,
two great techniques to really help baby um with their keeping their head nice and round.
So, with baby wearing we are keeping baby off their head so they're not going to be
you know sleeping in a crib sleeping on in a car seat. They're up with us not having
time um with their head being molded and a little tip when you're baby wearing especially
say you're wearing a wrap you can gently turn your baby's head so their head is resting on one cheek
and then maybe the next time you baby wear them you wear them sort of on this side
so their head is on the other cheek. Baby wearing can be a great way to help prevent
it. Also is just amazing. Anyway, the next thing is tummy time. You've probably heard that it's
important to have babies on their tummy for bits of time during the day. Babies usually don't like
tummy time when they're newborns. They often cry. So it is okay as long as we do just a few seconds,
a minute, in little intervals throughout the day. That is really going to help. We don't need
extended amounts of time especially when they're little. But I have a great little hack that I want
to share with you for getting this tummy time in and making it a routine of your day and it
has to do with diapering. Because of course we are going to be diapering no matter what. Even though
it might be strange you can think of it as a rotisserie chicken or pancakes that we have to go
back and forth right if we're cooking we have to evenly get both sides so if we are changing baby's
diaper we can change baby's diaper like this and then after diaper is done turn baby on their side
standing there of course with your hand right next to baby. You're not gonna leave baby alone on the
changing table of course. You know that um baby on their side let them spend a few seconds, a minute
if they're enjoying it on their side. Then rotate for tummy time on the changing table. Again,
you're right there. You can even have your hand on baby. They might cry a couple seconds, you know
a few seconds, 30 seconds a minute that's that counts that's great. And then keep turning baby
over to the other side that with side lying on the other side and let them have some time there.
So, if you're changing your baby's diaper you know eight times a day, ten times a day you can have
time. Now of course middle of the night, you know skip that. You just need to maximize your sleep
but during the day time think of doing spending that time sort of rotating all the way through and
letting them have a little bit of tummy time and side time when you are diapering. And that will be
great. Tummy time is also really great if you are lying back in the chair and having baby like this
and letting them have some tummy time this way. You can also kind of position their head help
them that way. Okay guys you can do this these small little hacks that are going to help baby
keep that nice rounded shape, prevent flat head and implement them into your schedule. If you
like this video and found it helpful I always appreciate a like. Also if you want to see more
baby care, I have a great video about uh umbilical cord care here and if you are waiting for that
magic day in labor make sure you check out my must watch before birth playlist because that's where
you're going to find my top hits for the big day. Thanks for watching today guys have a good one.