But if synostosis occurs at more than one suture, the skull may begin to press on the brain and can interfere with a child’s cognitive development. It is unlikely that early damage will be caused to the brain, though problems can arise in the long term. If only one suture is affected, a child’s skull may appear misshapen. This is known as craniosynostosis or synostosis. Occasionally, the sutures of a child’s skull close prematurely or fail to develop properly. In rare cases, a malformed, asymmetrical skull might be a danger to a child’s developing brain. For this reason, some parents seek treatment even when the condition is not medically dangerous. Still, if a child’s head appears different, he or she may be ridiculed by others and a child's social development can suffer. Most skull malformations do not pose a risk to a child’s developing brain. But if the shape of the front and sides of his or her head also are affected, parents are likely to notice and to worry. If most of the flattening is in the back of his head, it may be covered by hair and barely noticeable. If your baby prefers one side of the back of his or her head to the other, the skull can take on an asymmetrical, lopsided shape. This condition is known as positional molding.īecause the baby’s head is very soft in both the bone and brain layers, it tends to deform like a beanbag - flattening in the back and front and widening on the sides. When a baby sleeps only on their back with the soft, thin bones at the back of the head supporting the weight of the skull and brain, a similar molding of the skull can occur. Now, some modern parents are inadvertently doing the same thing. They did this by wrapping bands around babies’ heads or placing babies on flat headboards. Many cultures, including ancient Egyptians and some Native American tribes, took advantage of this flexibility to mold babies’ heads into different shapes. The top and back of a newborn’s skull are very flexible. This allows the bones to grow evenly, resulting in an evenly shaped head. The body produces new bone at the suture lines. Other sutures extend to the forehead, sides and back of the skull. One long suture goes from back to front in the middle of the skull. The skull consists of a number of bone plates that are naturally knitted together at sutures, or seams, where the bone plates overlap.

Although our pediatric experts agree, it has given rise to a problem: When a baby sleeps only on his or her back, skull growth and development can be unfavorably affected. To prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies sleep on their backs.

Baby head misshapen at birth