Plagiocephaly
Plagiocephaly is an uneven or asymmetrical head shape – a ‘flat head’. It can also be a flattened spot on the back or side of a baby’s head. Plagiocephaly can be mild, moderate or severe.
Babies are often born with misshaped heads. This can be caused by the head’s position in the uterus during pregnancy, or it can happen because of the squashy passage down the birth canal.
Also, newborn skull bones are soft, thin and flexible. This means that the heads of newborn babies can change shape easily. So plagiocephaly sometimes happens when babies lie with their heads in the same position for a long time.
In some babies, more severe plagiocephaly can be caused by tight neck muscles (congenital muscular torticollis), which means babies have a strong preference for turning their heads to one side.
Later in infancy, some babies with severe plagiocephaly might have a delay in the development of gross motor skills like rolling and crawling.
The proper medical name for this type of plagiocephaly is deformational plagiocephaly. There’s another type of plagiocephaly called synostotic plagiocephaly. It happens when a baby’s skulls bones don’t close properly. This article is only about deformational plagiocephaly.
