Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Do preterm infants always have flattened heads?

N Rutter1, W Hinchliffe, P H Cartlidge

  • 1Department of Neonatal Medicine and Surgery, Nottingham City Hospital.

Archives of Disease in Childhood
|May 1, 1993
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Neonatology and clinical chemistry.

Archives of disease in childhood·2010
Same author

Twenty year surveillance of invasive pneumococcal disease in Nottingham: serogroups responsible and implications for immunisation.

Archives of disease in childhood·2004
Same author

The child with a non-blanching rash: how likely is meningococcal disease?

Archives of disease in childhood·2001
Same author

Kingella kingae endocarditis in a sixteen-month-old-child.

The Pediatric infectious disease journal·2001
Same author

Social deprivation and the causes of stillbirth and infant mortality.

Archives of disease in childhood·2001
Same author

Topical amethocaine gel for pain relief of heel prick blood sampling: a randomised double blind controlled trial.

Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition·2000

A soft mattress may reduce early head flattening in preterm infants. However, head shape issues in premature babies typically resolve by age 4, irrespective of neonatal mattress type.

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal care
  • Developmental pediatrics
  • Infant health

Background:

  • Premature infants often experience positional head flattening (plagiocephaly) in the neonatal period.
  • Previous research suggested soft mattresses could mitigate this early head deformation.
  • The long-term impact of neonatal sleep surfaces on infant head shape remained unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the long-term resolution of head flattening in very preterm infants.
  • To determine if neonatal mattress type influences head shape development by early childhood.

Main Methods:

  • A follow-up study included 31 infants born before 32 weeks' gestation.
  • Infants' head shapes were assessed in the neonatal period and again at 3-4 years of age.
  • Comparison was made between infants who used different types of mattresses in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Head flattening observed in the neonatal period resolved in all infants by 3-4 years of age.
  • Infant head shape at follow-up was similar to that of full-term controls.
  • No significant difference in head shape resolution was associated with the type of mattress used during infancy.

Conclusions:

  • Positional head flattening in very preterm infants typically resolves naturally by early childhood.
  • The type of mattress used in the neonatal period does not appear to affect the long-term outcome of head shape.
  • Neonatal interventions regarding mattress type may not be critical for correcting plagiocephaly in the long run.