August 19, 2010

Flat-headed babies

Aliyah Mawji, a PhD student with the Faculty of Nursing, is investigating the side effects of putting babies to sleep on their backs.Putting babies to sleep on their backs is now considered one of the best ways to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). But an adverse side effect, called plagiocephaly or flat head syndrome, could be a result and is the basis of a new research study by a Faculty of Nursing instructor.

“With the increased public awareness about the ‘Back to Sleep’ campaign advising parents to put infants to sleep on their backs to avoid SIDS, there is growing evidence to suggest an increase in plagiocephaly,” says Aliyah Mawji, a public health registered nurse and Community Health Sciences doctoral candidate. “However, little is known in Canada about the occurrence of flat heads and why some infants develop it and some do not.”

Mawji’s PhD supervisor Ardene Robinson Vollman says that parents, especially first-timers, can become concerned when they notice a flat spot has developed on their infant’s head. “Because the newborn skull is so soft and pliable and a newborn spends most of its time with its head resting on something, positional plagiocephaly is not unexpected,” she says. “However, the more we understand—and can share with health care practitioners—about why some babies seem more prone to plagiocephaly and ways to prevent it, the more confidence parents can have about the health of their child.”

Since July, Mawji has been assessing healthy two- to three-month-old infants at their first immunization clinic visits at four Calgary Community Health Centres. Her goal of 400 babies for the study will ensure the results can be generalized to the population. She is also working in conjunction with the Head Shape Clinic at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and will be following some infants to assess how many attend repositioning classes and what proportion need other interventions, for example, helmets.

“This epidemiologic research will help to calculate the incidence rate for infant plagiocephaly in Calgary and will identify factors that help predict which babies develop flat heads and which do not,” explains Mawji. “We can then inform public health nursing practice about how babies with flat heads can be best identified, how plagiocephaly is managed and what resources need to be put into place to help support parents.”