TORONTO – Almost half of Canadian infants develop flat areas on the back of their heads by the age of two months, likely the result of sleeping face-up to prevent sudden infant death syndrome, a study suggests.
The study by Calgary researchers is believed to be the first in Canada to look at the incidence of what’s known as plagiocephaly, a flattening of the back of a baby’s skull.
“What we found out was that when we studied infants that were seven to 12 weeks of age coming into two-month immunization clinics in Calgary, almost half of them had some sort of flat spot on their head,” said Aliyah Mawji of the school of nursing at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
“That was pretty surprising. I didn’t anticipate that it would be that high.”
Plagiocephaly occurs because the bony plates of a baby’s skull are soft and have not yet fused together. This flattening at the back of the head — typically on one side or the other, based on how the infant lies — can cause facial and other changes.
“If they’ve got a flat spot on one side, what that likely means is that they’ve got the forehead protrusion on the same side and they also have a bit of ear shifting forward on the same side,” said Mawji.
While the distortions are cosmetic and rarely cause a medical problem, left untreated they can become permanent and affect the child later in life.
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Study shows nearly half of two-month-olds have flat spots on their heads
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