Why does the baby always tilt his head when sleeping?

Infancy is the happiest time for a child, when they are carefree and just eat and sleep. However, the child's resistance is limited at this time, and he cannot express his own ideas. Many times when abnormal situations occur, parents are not sure of their severity, just like the child always tilts his head when sleeping or feeding. So, why do babies always tilt their heads when they sleep? Let’s take a closer look below.

Newborn babies spend most of the day sleeping. If a child keeps his head tilted while sleeping all day, it can easily cause the occipital part of the skull to gradually become flat. This may form a vicious circle: the child likes to keep the head in a fixed posture, and a flat area will appear on the skull; this flat area can easily support the child's head, and the child will like to maintain this special posture more. Over time, the child's head will always like to tilt to one side.

When parents find that their child's head always likes to tilt to one side, they can try to gently straighten his head while he sleeps and use a hollow shaping pillow to fix the head position. If this still cannot keep the child's head in a neutral position, the child should be taken to the hospital for examination to see if he or she has congenital muscular torticollis.

However, the treatment of congenital muscular torticollis is not complicated. It is generally performed through massage techniques, and massage ointment is applied to the affected area to act on the contracted sternocleidomastoid muscle to improve scars and soften lumps. The affected side sternocleidomastoid muscle is pulled to stretch the muscle tissue and passive movements are used to relax the muscle, thereby improving local blood circulation, achieving the purpose of dissipating the lumps on the affected side and relieving stiffness and spasms. At the same time, the posterior neck muscles are massaged to relieve tension.

If possible, parents should learn this massage technique from professional medical staff and massage their baby at home. After the massage, give hot compresses and train the child to raise his head in the prone position with elbows or hands supporting his head to help improve the child's neck muscle strength.

Generally speaking, for patients with mild symptoms and small lumps in the affected area, they can usually recover after conservative treatment in about 40 days. If the lumps are large, a cervical collar should be used to limit their movement. For some younger children, whose necks have been tilted to one side for a long time, although the lumps have disappeared and the head no longer tilts to one side after treatment, in order to prevent the possibility of "recurrence" - that is, the neck is still habitually tilted to the affected side after treatment, massage is generally needed for a period of time, 2 to 3 times a week. If there is no abnormality after 2 months, no further treatment is needed.

The above is an introduction to why babies always tilt their heads when sleeping. I hope it will be helpful to parents. There are many factors that cause children to tilt their heads when sleeping. It may be caused by illness. Parents must pay attention to it. If the child does this for a long time, it is best to go to a regular hospital for a comprehensive examination to avoid accidents.