When should you start using a baby pillow for your baby? 8 tips

Many peopl says baby pillow is a useless product and refusing to use. It can almost be said to do more harm than good.

Neither of my two children has ever used it. Whenever a friend asks me about it, I tell them that there is no need to buy it, it is a waste of money and it is not good for the children’s growth and development.

Many parents buy shaping pillows for their babies because their babies have ugly head shapes, especially flat heads , tilted heads, oblique heads, scaphoid heads , short heads, etc.

In order to give their baby a beautiful head shape, parents are also very worry. They inquire, Baidu, and compare in various ways. They either buy one recommended by a friend, or simply use the method of the elderly and make the rice pillow themselves.

However, the above methods lack scientific basis and are not reliable.

Why does the baby’s head tend to become flat when sleeping?

The baby’s sleeping position is the main reason for a flat head. When the baby sleeps lying down every night, the pressure of the mattress will squeeze the back of the baby’s head or one side of the head, causing the skull to become flat. Once the head becomes flat, the head will stay in the flat position by itself. Whether sleeping or waking up, the baby will always prefer the flat side.

If the baby is use to sleeping on one side, the head will be easily compress and deformed into a parallelogram shape. In a few particularly serious cases, in addition to the round head, the eyes and ears may also be asymmetrical, which may affect the appearance.

From the perspective of baby’s growth and development, before the age of 1, the baby’s skull sutures have not yet completely fused, the skull is soft and elastic, and can easily be deformed by pressure.

My second child’s head was very flat, with one part higher than the other, and slanted four months ago. It really didn’t look good. My grandmother always kept saying that he should adjust and change his head shape as soon as possible. In order to appease the old man’s anxiety, I had to spread more medical knowledge to her. Haha, she stopped nagging after I said it too much.

If your head is flattened while sleeping, should you use a shaping pillow to fix it? Of course not. You can’t use it, you can’t use it, you can’t use it.

Why is it not recommend to use a baby pillow?

In order to answer this question, I also looked up some information.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) do not recommend the use of shaping pillows or other sleep positioning products on infants because these products can cause suffocation and death in infants.

At the same time, it is not recommend to use any other form of pillow for babies. Because babies do not need pillows and pillows increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome .

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children should sleep on their backs every time they turn one year old, as this is the safest sleeping position.

After a lot of explanations, the summary is that the shaping pillow cannot change the shape of the head. Instead, it increases the risk of sudden infant death and threatens the baby’s life safety.

If you don’t want to use a shaping pillow, then use other methods, which have a higher safety factor and are free, thus saving money.

How to improve baby’s flat head and ugly head shape?

According to relevant information, the baby’s head shape is related to genetic factors, and an ugly head shape (postural hemicephaly) is mainly related to uneven pressure on the head.

If you want your baby’s head to be beautiful, you can take the following safe and effective measures to prevent it:

1. Reduce the compression of flat head area

Although it is not recommended to improve the baby’s head shape by sleeping on his stomach or side, when the baby sleeps in a supine position, we can frequently change the direction of the baby’s head. The decorations beside the baby’s bed can also be frequently changed to attract the baby to turn his head in different directions.

When the baby is awake, we can find ways to let the baby raise his head to play more, or change the position of the baby’s head when lying down.

If you keep doing this, after more than a month, most babies’ head shapes will improve to some extent.

2. Play more on your stomach

When the baby is awake, you can let the baby lie on the bed or mat, or let the baby lie on your body and play with the baby to exercise the baby’s physical coordination ability and enjoy a happy parent-child time.

Playing on your stomach is not only good for changing the head shape, but also helps the baby to exercise arm strength to promote motor development. Playing on your stomach can also see the world from multiple angles, allowing the baby to better understand the things around them, be full of curiosity about the world, and increase childishness.

3. Hug your baby more

Many people are afraid to hold their babies. They think that if they hold their babies too much now, the babies will always need to be held in the future and they will not be able to put them down. This is not good for themselves or the baby and increases the burden of raising the baby.

However, in real life, we encourage parents to hold their babies more often and try different ways of holding their babies, such as holding them vertically, holding them with both hands, lying down with legs together and letting the baby lie on our legs, etc. Just don’t let the back of the baby’s head be under pressure all the time.

4. Encourage your baby to turn his head more often

If your baby likes certain toys, you can place the toys in multiple places to attract his or her attention and let the baby turn his or her head to look in different directions.

When sleeping in bed, you can also change positions alternately between the head and foot of the bed, left and right. This can also help.

I did this for both of my babies. I changed the headband every month. When the second baby was six months old, his head shape was basically not so flat anymore, and it was even developing towards a round head. He looked better and better, and my parents-in-law were no longer anxious.

5. Frequent turnover

When holding or feeding your baby, change hands frequently to change the direction of the baby’s head to avoid pressure on the same part.

6. Be patient

In addition to the hard work mentioned above, most babies with mild to moderate flat heads do not need special treatment. As the children grow older and spend less time lying down, their head shape will naturally improve.

Therefore, as parents, we should not be too anxious about the head shape. When the children grow up and their hair grows longer, who can tell clearly whether they have a flat head or a round head? At that time, everyone will probably look at the face.

7. Pay more attention to babies with torticollis

For some physiological or pathological torticollis, during the process of self-recovery or treatment, it is also necessary to avoid pressure on the flat head area and change the position more often.

8. Refuse to customize helmets, Mizhen

There are many such things on the market now, but they lack scientific basis. If they are actually used on the baby’s head, the risks outweigh the benefits and may cause other irreparable harm.

Therefore, as a parent, don’t be too anxious to improve your baby’s head shape and choose tools blindly.

Sometimes letting things take their course can lead to unexpected rewards.

We all want to have a beautiful and handsome baby, but when choosing products, we need to have scientific basis, weigh the pros and cons, and make the right choice.

For the health of your child, please stay away from baby head shaping pillows.