Baby round head is more beautiful and sought after by parents Can "shape" the round head of the orthopedic helmet effective?

Reporter Wei Wei Correspondent Gao Chenchen

Flat head will show a large face, and the round head is good-looking, but also appear more beautiful facial features, recently, young parents in order to let the baby win at the starting line of each big move, some mothers spend high prices to make custom helmets for the baby. Why is the baby's head easy to "crooked"? Are these "plastic artifacts" really effective?

Infant orthopedic "helmets" are sought after, and parents have mixed reviews

In a treasure search, many related head orthopedic goods are selling well, from the more common orthopedic pillows to the "private" orthopedic helmets. On social platforms, moms have released sharing of helmets, mostly by wearing helmets, so that the baby's skull grows in the standard direction of the area, so that the head is more round and beautiful.

How effective are orthopedic helmets? According to reports, a Hangzhou mother who spent 30,000 yuan to buy an orthopedic helmet said that although the baby suffered some crimes in wearing a helmet every day, the result was still satisfactory, but some mothers had different opinions: the baby wore eczema, and the phenomenon of crooked head was not alleviated. In public reports, there is a mother of twins, and one of the babies has a palpable lump in his eye because his left eye is squeezed by a helmet. Both children had different degrees of bulges on the top of their heads, and only surgery was necessary to recover.

It is more common for babies to "sleep crookedly", but be wary of "early closure of the skull suture"

Du Hao, director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Wuhan Children's Hospital, said that most of the head shape of newborns is pointed, because the baby's head is squeezed through the birth canal during childbirth, or caused by the pulling of forceps.

The skull of a baby is different from that of an adult, which is made up of multiple pieces of skull splicing together, and there is a certain growth gap between each bone piece, and it has not yet been fully fused, so the skull at this stage is very soft and highly plastic. Therefore, the situation of deformed head sleep during infancy is relatively common.

During this period, if the sleeping position is reasonably adjusted, the baby's head shape will gradually become rounded. As babies age, these crevices also gradually harden and close. When the baby reaches the age of December to 18 months, the head shape is basically fixed.

It should be reminded that there are two main categories of abnormal head shapes in babies - physiological skull deformation (as described above) and bone suture premature closure of the skull deformity (pathological).

If it is a physiological skull deformation, whether it is a round head or a flat head, it does not affect iq. Bone suture premature closure of the skull deformity (cranial suture premature closure), will significantly limit the growth of brain tissue, so that the child has intellectual, learning ability, language communication and other disorders, generally need to be corrected by surgery. The Department of Neurosurgery of Wuhan Children's Hospital received a number of babies with early closure of cranial sutures, and recovered their health after surgery.

Du Hao reminded parents that the earlier the cranial suture surgery, the better, 6 months to 1 year old. Many parents only come to the doctor when their children are one or two years old, and the child's brain function has been impaired, which is a pity. If parents find that the baby's head shape is huge or very small, or the facial features, head, frontal asymmetry and other abnormal head shape, they should go to the neurosurgery department as soon as possible to rule out serious deformities.

Stereotyped pillows and shaping helmets are risky, and it is not recommended that parents "shape" themselves

If it is only "sleeping crooked", parents can take a combination of sleeping on their heads, sleeping on their sides, and sleeping on their backs, changing their sleeping positions every few hours; they can hold them vertically when the baby is awake to relieve the pressure on the head; there is a fixed time to play on the stomach every day, and the baby can relax the head on the stomach, which helps to shape the perfect head shape. If the parents are always on the side of the bed, the baby is prone to habitually turn sideways, so it is best for the caregiver to change positions frequently.

Before the age of one, the baby's cervical spine has not yet developed a natural physiological curvature, for the baby, no pad is the most comfortable. Giving infants and young children a pillow increases the probability of death by suffocation. With a styling pillow, it is also possible to sleep with a flat head.

Some developed countries use orthopedic helmets more widely, but formal orthopedic helmets are medical devices, and parents customize their own use there is indeed a risk.

In fact, whether it is a flat head or a round head, the child's health is the most important. Parents who find problems must first seek a neurosurgeon for diagnosis and treatment by a doctor.