Head deformities in children.. Get to know them!

Many newborns suffer from head deformities, where they have uneven heads, but is that a cause for concern? What are the causes of these abnormalities? Are there pathological causes underlying these abnormalities? And what are the ways of treatment?

Many newborns suffer from head deformities, where they have uneven heads, but is that a cause for concern? What are the causes of these abnormalities? Are there pathological causes underlying these abnormalities? And what are the ways of treatment?

Causes of head deformities in infants

According to the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit medical and research group, among the causes of uneven head formation in infants are:

passing through the birth canal.

Pressure on the back of the head when the infant lies on his back, as the infant''s skull is soft, which leads to the distortion of the shape of the head due to its support in one place. This condition is known as flat head syndrome.

How do you know that your child''s head is flat?

When looking at your baby''s head from above, it might look like

The back of his head is flatter on one side than the other.

The ear on the flat side is pushed forward.

How is the baby''s head deformed?

The skull is composed of five bones with relatively small spaces between them known as sutures, and there are six sutures. Keeping these seams open is important for:

Allowing the bones of the skull to move during the birth process

Allow the brain to increase in size as the child grows

These sutures close with ossification during the development of one child after another, so if one of the sutures becomes ossified and the other remains open early, it leads to:

Abnormal growth of the skull, causing morphological and neurological disorders.

These disorders include

Navital head: It is one of the craniosynostosis disorders, and these disorders are four times more common in males than in females.

Cystic of the head appears longitudinally along the dome of the cranium, as ossification occurs along the sagittal suture that extends from the front to the back of the head.

The normal ossification of the sagittal suture ensures a transverse growth of the middle and posterior regions of the skull. Therefore, closing the sagittal suture early, as in the sagittal suture of the head, impedes the transverse growth of the middle and posterior regions of the dome of the cranium, making the skull appear elongated from front to back and narrow from ear to ear. the interview.

The continuing growth of the brain after premature closure of the sagittal suture forces the remaining non-osseous sutures to grow longitudinally to make room for an increase in the size of the developing brain, resulting in an increased width and prominence of the forehead.

Deviational cranial malformation: This is an early fusion of one of the coronal sutures resulting in:

flat forehead

eyebrow area

The height of the eye sockets on the side corresponding to the closed suture upwards

While the forehead protrudes greatly and the orbit of the eye decreases in the opposite direction to the suture, which leads to:

Curvature of the skull to one side

Impairment of brain development at the fusion side

Continuing growth on the opposite side

Trisomy of the head: It is the premature closure of the frontal suture that secures the transverse growth of the forehead. Therefore, its premature fusion hinders the transverse growth of the forehead. It looks like:

narrow

prominent vertical peak

Orbital convergence

wide in the back

Narrow and pointed forehead

Short Head: The two coronary sutures stop growing forward, making

The skull is short according to the anterior-posterior axle

The skull is extended backward and upward

The forehead is high, broad and flat

Methods for treating uneven head

A physical test is done to diagnose a localized brain malformation by a doctor, but in some cases you can manage it at home, by changing the way your child sleeps, which may reduce the misalignment of the head and speed up the return of the head to its normal shape:

Continue to lay your baby on his back to sleep, but switch the direction of the head when he is in bed.

Put the baby''s head near the edge of the crib one time and at the head of the crib the next.

Hold your baby in your arms nately every time he feeds.

Hold your baby when he wakes up to relieve pressure on the baby''s head.

Lay your baby on his tummy a lot to enjoy supervised play, and make sure the surface is stable.