Plagiocephaly: Are flat-headed babies on the rise?
(CBS) Flat-headed babies appear to be on the rise, at least in Texas.
A new review of the Texas Birth Defects Registry shows that cases of flattened heads (plagiocephaly) increased nine-fold between 1999 and 2007, rising from 2.6 cases per 10,000 live births all the way to 60.5 cases.
The review was published online Tuesday in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
What explains the dramatic increase in misshapen baby heads? Some media reports have suggested it's because parents have been heeding the advice of pediatricians who advise putting babies to sleep on their backs in order to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a.k.a "crib death."
Not likely, study author Dr. Peter H. Langlois, a senior epidemiologist at the registry, told CBS News.
"There may be a small increase in the occurrence of plagiocephaly, but we think it's primarily a trend in increasing detection" at the registry, Langlois said. "Our intention was not to question the pediatricians' 'Back to Sleep' campaign."
The campaign began in 1994 as a way to reduce SIDS deaths by educating parents, caregivers, and health-care providers. Since then, the percentage of infants placed in their cribs on their backs has risen dramatically - and the overall SIDS rate has declined more than 50 percent, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
SIDS is what doctors call it when a baby dies suddenly and unexpectedly without any obvious cause. In the U.S., more than 4,500 infants die of SIDS each year.
