Empowering Women in Chiropractic -Does Plagiocephaly Affect Motor Development?

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I wanna thank ChiroSecure for giving us this amazing platform to enlighten the world about kiddos and chiropractic. They've always got our backs and they're always there for us to spread the word on the importance of chiropractic. Thank you again. ChiroSecure. Hey there I am, Monica Berger, and today me and my pal Elizabeth are going to talk about Plagiocephaly.

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So pop quiz. Is there sufficient evidence to support the fact that infants. That have developmental plagiocephaly will go on to develop other neurodevelopmental challenges later in life. Yes. No. Or maybe we're gonna dash out, dash in, dig in, and we're gonna hash it all out right here, right now.

Elizabeth is gonna take a nap as I help you understand the importance of what you need to know. For your practice, for your families and plagiocephaly. So let's do it. So first of all, you should know the percentage. Raise your hand. I know you're probably not, I if you're listening to this, but you can't raise your hand.

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But we're gonna pretend like this is a little pop quiz in the classroom. Raise your hand if you know the percentage of infants that present with Plagiocephaly. This is a big number that anybody working with kiddos in their practices need to know. So here's the scoop. It is a wide gap or wide range and the literature shows anywhere from 20 to 50%.

Big stretch there, right? In 2023 there was it went as high as 46.6% of infants. Presented with Developmental Plagiocephaly, that is a big number that we should be aware of, and you're gonna see why even more so in just a few minutes. So hang tight. So first of all, so we need to be mindful.

We need to be able to manage those little fiddle farts when they come in our offices, but we also need to have a keen eye on what potentially may or may not develop down the road. So risk factors birth risk factors that are associated with developmental plagiocephaly. Now this is different than craniosynostosis, which is actually very rare.

Okay, so this is positional developmental, plagiocephaly, brachiocephalic risk factors, preterm birth. That's something that I talk about a lot. Okay. Multiples. Okay. Because positional in utero and those with assisted devices. Forceps, suction upon during the birth process have about a 2% increased risk of development Plagiocephaly c-sections has been associated with, but it doesn't seem to be an increased risk.

So these are also factors we need to understand and look at. So from the traditional medical pediatric treatment standpoint. The biggest recommendation is tummy time. Wonderful. Great. And we've seen this massive rise in these numbers. Up to 50% of kiddos because of the back to sleep campaign, right?

Advocating supine sleeping. And that's very well known. So they advocate tummy time. Makes sense, right? All right, get the baby on tummy time. What if they don't like tummy time? What if they can't do tummy time? What if they had vertebral subluxations or low tone? And we're seeing more and more kiddos that are struggling with tummy time.

So one thing you need to understand is what does tummy time look like? And I've talked about this for several years now, and we've done subsequent events where we've talked about proper progressive neuromotor patterns. Proper progressive tummy time. So that's critical that you need to know those.

And so we need to see, for instance, by the age of two months, are they doing tummy time and have their head up at a 45 degree angle? At the age of three months, are they doing tummy time and have their head up at a 90 degree angle? Are they by six months-ish getting up in that fly position? Okay, are they pivoting off the center of their axis?

And these are all critical motor patterns that need to happen for the lifelong health of that little fiddle fart. And chemical, physical, emotional, mental health. Okay? There's a lot to unpack here and understand here. Back to Plagiocephaly it. So they say, okay, do tummy time. Okay.

What if the little kiddo doesn't like or can't do that, and if they have vertebral subluxations, they may be restricted in being able to do that. We know that plagiocephaly leads to body asymmetry. Okay. So let's take the supine position. Let's say they have a right plagiocephaly. And they're always lying with their head to the right, and they're always looking towards their right hand eye coordination to the right may develop.

Okay, but what about hand eye coordination or knowing I have a left side. Okay. That it, we, our brain needs to know we have a right side and a left side. An upper body and a lower body. So that can lead to a what we call midline neglect, not knowing I have two sides and asymmetry of the body equals asymmetry of the brain.

That's what I tell my parents. Okay? So if we see these asymmetries of body movement, that means asymmetrical brain development. It's very easy. Very poignant though. A very poignant point to tell your parents. So we know that body asymmetry is something that we really are concerned with those, with plagiocephaly.

But the other thing that, that they're seeing is plagiocephaly is associated with neuro or motor delays. So there's your answer. Yes. The research does support that plays your in infancy. Can lead to a number, a host of potential neurodevelopmental challenges, particularly language development, speech motor development eye contact, social engagement.

Those are all big factors we see associated with plagiocephaly. But that thing that, that we need to look at is it also leads to poor postal stability, dynamic postal control. And what they see is there's the a critical window of postural dynamic. We need to understand dynamic postural control, being able to be upright against gravity and pivot and move in dynamic motions.

Through the center of the core. And there's a critical window that develops that dynamic posture stability, especially from ages three to six. But those with paleo epli have been shown to be, have, challenges in these postal development and coordination of the body movement. So we need to understand that.

There's a big association, like I said, between fine and gross motor skills and plagiocephaly. There is the, they, there was one study that was really interesting. They did an EEG and event related potentials, ERPs, basically on school aged children. That had a history of plagiocephaly in infancy ages nine to 15 years old, and they showed that they had struggles with auditory processing.

So sensory processing disorder is one of those things we're gonna have to be very mindful of with regard to a history at of developmental positional plagiocephaly in infancy. Because of these abnormal motor patterns that they're going through, especially that first year of life, that is the core foundation for not just motor development, but brain development, and we're seeing the long-term consequences.

In fact, kiddos that when they took siblings, when they looked at siblings and kiddos that had a history of plagiocephaly versus their sibling. Had about a 39%. Third they were, they needed social special services at school, particularly in speech, OT, and pt. And that group was about 39% that they saw needed special services at school versus their sibling that did not have a history of celi.

And that group was about 6%. So there's a, we're seeing that, that big, that big push towards there. So essentially, developmental plagiocephaly is noted as a risk factor. Get this, if they're in your office, you need to understand that there is a potential risk factor for that child to go on and develop.

Have neurodevelopmental struggles, particularly motor struggles later on in life. Sensory processing, particularly auditory processing disorder. What else do I wanna tell you? Interestingly enough, using an orthotic helmet did not change the outcomes for developmental concerns in those kiddos with plagiocephaly.

So that goes to tell us we can do the. Outward beautification on changing the appearance. However, if we are not so structurally, you get the changes. But if that kiddo did not go through these good developmental motor patterns, which equals laying down those it's the law of developmental neuroplasticity, laying down those tracks that are later on gonna be needed.

For posture control, learning, attention and behavior. Okay, so basically bottom line, when those kiddos come in, you really need to understand to, once you've corrected and worked with the outward structure, so you've changed their, the cranial structures visually. They really need to be monitored for potentially.

Ongoing delays later on in life. So that means, let's say you're working with them and you see those changes by six weeks of age. Then your job is to make sure that they go through proper neuromotor, progressive developmental patterns. From that point on, that means proper tummy time. That means proper rolling.

That means sitting up and having dynamic postural stability. That means cross crawl patterns. That first year is gonna be absolutely so critically important. To make sure that not only have you changed the structural from the outward appearance, but that now you're fostering good symmetrical brain development.

Then, like we talked about ages three through six, making sure that they're able to meet those progressive. Motor milestones and they're running, moving, have dynamic movements that are symmetrical and healthy because that means optimal brain development. So there's some a lot to unpack there. But these are all things that I cover in pillar one of my foundations and neural development course, which is killer.

So you need to know all those foundational steps in order to support those little fiddle farts that have come in. Developmental Plagiocephaly. Again, I wanna thank Kyra Saki, Elizabeth and I had a great time hanging out. Hopefully you got some fantastic pearls to put into play in practice and help those kiddos survive, thrive, and live the ultimate life chemically, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

We will see you next month for another amazing episode.

Today's pediatric show to the children was brought to you by ChiroSecure.

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