Baby Heading Pillows For Comfort: Sleeping Safely

The Baby heading pillows are made with soft, safe materials and are contoured to fit the shape of baby’s head, providing the perfect amount of support while allowing for natural movement during sleep. They come in a variety of colors and designs, making them both practical and stylish.

Topping the list of rules for new parents is that you should always put babies to sleep on their back, on a firm, flat surface, free of soft bedding, pillows, or padding.

But this safety recommendation can have an effect that some parents find disconcerting: When babies spend a lot of time on their backs, they can develop a flat spot on the back of their head, a problem called flat-head syndrome, technically known as plagiocephaly.

It’s true that the more time babies spend in one position on their backs, the more likely they are to develop a flat spot. That’s because the bones of a newborn’s skull are not yet fused together, says Elias B. Rizk, MD, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa., so they are more malleable than the skulls of older children or adults.

In addition, slight head deformities that do persist tend to become less noticeable as children get bigger, Rizk says. The skin around their skull bones thickens, their hair grows in, and they get taller, which makes their head appear proportionally smaller. All these changes cause any flat spots to appear much less pronounced.

If you’re concerned, talk with your pediatrician, who may suggest one or more of these strategies.

Give your baby plenty of supervised tummy time so that she is not always lying flat on her back even when she’s awake.

Lay your baby down in different spots in the crib from week to week so she’s not always facing in the same direction and pressing on the same spot on the back of her head.

If you have a mobile hanging in the crib, move it around periodically so that your baby is enticed to turn in a new direction to see it.

Regularly switch where you stand when changing your baby’s diaper so that he won’t have to turn to only one side in order to look at you.

Alternate how you hold your baby during feedings so that her head is not always pressed flat in the same position.

Limit the amount of time your baby spends in car seats, bouncers, swings, and other carriers, which can constrain head movement and put pressure on the same spots on the head as lying flat.