Hi,
My 4 month old son holds his head tilted to the left. While he can move it side to side and follow objects without a problem, he likes to hold his head tilted to the left. At his doc appt last week, the doctor noted that he favors the left side but she said his head is large (98 percentile) so it might be the weight (he is in the 92 percentile for height but only the 55 percentile for weight). She also said he moved his head left to right fine and that we just have to watch it and we have to watch how fast his head is growing. She said if he grows more than 1/2 an inch in the next month to bring him back. She suggested we give him more tummy time (which he hates) and hold him on the right side since we hold him mostly on the left.
Honestly before last week, I hardly noticed how he held his head but now I'm worried sick over it and I'm obsessing on how I can get him to hold his head straight and if there is some kind of underlying problem that I don't know about. Has anyone else had any experience with this???
I had a fairly normal pregnancy. He was delivered via emergency c-section b/c the cord was wrapped around his neck and he was lying on it so he was cutting off the blood flow with his body weight. He "talks" tons and is very responsive. He is starting to grab things now and loves the mirror! He isn't rolling over yet (or really even trying) but I hear boys tend to do things at their own pace and his doc said son boys don't do that until they are 6 months old.
Any advice on this would be very appreciated. Thanks so much!
I don't have any experience with this, but as a mom I understand your concern. I saw on 04/11/08 Dawn H had a post with the same question, head tilt with her 2 1/2 month old daughter. I didn't have a chance to read over it, but she recieved over 40 responses I think. So if you have a chance some of the responses she received may be helpful.
Hi T.,
My second daughter also had a very large head (at almost 3, her head is still really big for her size! Her sister calls her "my little blockhead," to which my little one responds "Pinhead!" ah, sisters...). For the first several months it was really hard for her to hold her head up straight. Our doctor said to give it time, since little babies have such tiny necks, and especially when they have a big, heavy head, that is a lot of weight for those little neck muscles to hold up! By the time she was around 6 months old and crawling, she could hold her head up fine and she has developed completely normally since then. If your pediatrician advised you to keep an eye on things, then there is probably no cause for worry at this point. All kids develop a little differently.
I don't know if you have one of those ExerSaucer things, but if he is able to hold himself upright a little, you might try sitting him in that for short periods. (My older daughter HATED tummy time with a vengeance, so that's what we did instead!)
Hi T.,
As Kim noted, try and find Dawn's post...it will at least put you at ease. Both my girls have heads that are in the 90%-98% since birth. It is heavy, and my first, who was the largest, also did not like tummy time. She had a head tilt, which you will read about in Dawn’s post, and one thing you can do is lay him on his back and play with toys on the side in which he does not favor turning his head toward. This will still get him the head rotation needed to flex and stretch those stiff muscles without having to also lift his head.
It will work itself out though, so DON’T PANIC!! He is just fine!!
