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Home › Articles › Babies › Heads Up!

Heads Up!

Infant Sleep Positions and Positional Molding

By Mindy Hudon, M.S.,CCC-SLP

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Miller reports that there is controversy regarding whether infants should be positioned on their sides to sleep. "Some centers feel this could put them at risk for SIDS as well because they may be able to flip on their abdomen, but no studies have been done to say that this is, in fact, true," says Miller. "The American Academy of Pediatrics hasn't made a statement on this."

Tummy Time
Miller explains that it is important to allow babies time on their tummies. "The other thing people overlook is that babies need time on their abdomen for overall development," she says.

Miller suggests "chest-to-chest" bonding or time on a blanket with supervision. When a baby is lying on his mother's chest, he will try to lift his head to look in her eyes. This helps improve the muscles in the back of the neck, minimizes the potential for torticollis (an imbalance in the size and strength of the large muscle on either side of the neck) and promotes skull base development.

Helmet Therapy
I felt so guilty! How could I have let this happen to our perfect little twins? For the past four months, I felt that all I had been doing was either picking one baby up or putting one baby down. Also, as a new mother, I was worried about SIDS and always put the twins down on their backs to sleep, as recommended. Now, our precious little boys had flat, crooked heads! I remember thinking about the image of a student sitting behind our boys in school and calling them names like "Flat Head!" The thought of this made me shiver!

After a month of juggling our twins around, their heads still were flat, and it was hard to keep them in positions off their flat spots. It seemed that no matter how we positioned their heads, they would always turn their heads to the same "flat" side.


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