• diagnosis

• the problem

• related medical problems

Up against the wall

Parents of infants affected by plagiocephaly often come up against a seemingly insurmountable barrier.

As professionals, we often wonder why positional plagiocephaly, brachycephaly and scaphocephaly do not appear to merit the same attention as other pediatric illnesses and orthopedic deformities, some of which are far less serious.

A qualified opinion from the American Academy of Pediatrics is available on our Home page.

Unfortunately, it is quite common in the Western world to find that

• the deformity is not spotted or is diagnosed late.


• even when it is diagnosed in time it is given little importance.


• it is taken as a cosmetic problem rather than what it really is: a deformity.


• many parents want treatment but doctors discourage them.


• other doctors who are aware of the alternatives hide valuable information from parents.


• comments that parents hear include: “That's of no importance”, “It's not worth getting obsessed about”, “It'll get better by itself”, “Her hair will cover it up”, “Nobody's perfect”, “His father's head is the same...”.

You get the feeling that this is some strange illness that can take months or years to be diagnosed while the truth is that plagiocephaly is really quite frequent and easily checked by the expert eye.

Apart from the purely physical factor, we should also consider that:

• everyone has a right to their own personal image, preferably symmetrical and of normal proportions.


• the morphological repercussions can be severe and in some cases even worse than in simple or complex craniosynostosis which can in turn lead to psychological problems in early chidhood and adolescence.