Looking to the left all the time!

[chocolatecatty]

Hiya,
When we put Caty down on her back, and when we hold her, 80% of the time she will turn her head to the far left. When she's happy on her play mat she'll turn her head left and right and that's great, but yeah, when we put her down to sleep, or up to burp, she'll crook her neck back and keep it there. Could it be an ear thing?

[Pandora]

I would talk about it with you Child Health Nurse.

It doesn't sound too bad if she is turning it both ways some of the time. It is important to find out though, and identify if there is a reason for it, or if it may be an issue.

I took Milo to a cranial osteopath (very gentle, not that it sounds it!) when he was 7 weeks old, for this reason, to check that everything was OK etc. He was doing the same thing, and the muscles were tighter on one side (likely from the birth process, or how he was sitting in the womb - milo was well engaged for at least 2 weeks before birth) and once this was sorted he was fine.

I only had to go twice, and it improved his feeding to boot.

Still, I did notice that with sleeping, he would go a few days always looking one way, and a few looking the other. Even If I put him down with his head in the other direction, it would be back within a couple of minutes.

[christy]

I was told that if they settle better on one side that is normal, but to encourage them when awake to rotate their heads both ways & put them on the other side a few times a day to keep their muscle development in both sides. So similar to Rachel.

[Carrie]

I would get it checked by a peadiatric chiropractor. The baby who was next to Kyla in the SCN would always cry when they put her on one side and roll back to the other, so they would put something there to keep her on that side to stop her from getting a misshaped head. weeks later the mum found out that her bub had a dislocated shoulder and that was why she cried - better to be safe than sorry.

[Roryrory]

I agree with what rayray and carrie have said. Flynn kept looking to one side (forget which one now!) and though we took him to a child osteo he did develop a flat spot on one side and with osteo treatment and a little head wedge we made him sleep on the other side and it rounded his head out. Osteo said he was tight on one side due to birth trauma (he had a hard time pushing his way out....)

[Visitor7]

Nina has just in the past week started favouring her left side too. She used to always sleep with her head straight (she has a flat spot in the centre of the back of her head). I'm going to ask the health nurse next week when she gets her needles. Hopefully it's normal and nothing more.

[Fee]

I would get it checked out. But surely babies have a side they prefer??? Might dictate whether they'll be left handed or right handed?!

My DS has started rolling constantly … but so far he can only do it on one side. I'm going to ask my MCHN next week about it.

[chocolatecatty]

Caty only rolls one way too....left from her tummy. I wonder if it's all connected. We have our 6 week check tomorrow so hopefully that'll shed some light on it.

[christy]

The left side is generally favoured in newborns, the chiropractor & GP both told me it was because of the way their intestines & stomach lie...