Sleep curve mattresses

Tim_Deegan

aliasojo wrote: »

Isn't this the point? The advice years ago was to have babies sleeping on their sides. Nowadays, we're told to have them on their backs. It's not surprising that there seems to be an increase in flat heads.

There are always sales gimmicks that's true, but how can you automatically dismiss new ideas as simply being another gimmick?

Because most babies don't have flat heads.

I know someone whos baby's head was flat on the right hand side only. A sleepcurve mattress wouldn't have prevented this.

The fact is that they are charging way over the top to just cut a V in the foam. Reflex foam is actually cheap.

Pippa79

Tim Deegan
-Have you ever tried the mattress? Felt it? Even seen it?
It doesnt dip the head below the body or push the neck back and I dont believe the foam is cheap.
Have you ever looked into flathead syndrome? Studied research that has already been generated? Looked into recent statistics?
I thought not.
FYI
The only cranio-facial unit in the country in the largest childrens hospital in Europe supports the SleepCurve mattress.

Tim_Deegan

Pippa79 wrote: »

Tim Deegan
-Have you ever tried the mattress? Felt it? Even seen it?
It doesnt dip the head below the body or push the neck back and I dont believe the foam is cheap.
Have you ever looked into flathead syndrome? Studied research that has already been generated? Looked into recent statistics?
I thought not.
FYI
The only cranio-facial unit in the country in the largest childrens hospital in Europe supports the SleepCurve mattress.

Yes, my son had a quite severe case of it, so I have done my research.

I do also know the bed and mattress industry, and I do know how much foam used in mattresses costs.

How can you say the head doesn't dip below the body when the head rests in a hole?

I'm not even going to go into hospital consultants who support products.

I have never said that the mattress won't help, just that in most cases it isn't needed. Also that the sales promotion preys on parents fears to get them to pay way over the top for a product that they probably don't even need. It's called marketing.

Felicity

Hi,

My son was born with Congengential Muscular Torticollis, an injury to the neck muscles that happens at birth.

This meant for the first few weeks of his life, pre diagnosis, he couldnt turn his head properly without being in an awful lot of pain (made breast feeding fun pre diagnosis!!!!). He would choose to always lie with his head in the same position and very quickly developed a flat head due to his skull being so soft.

I saw a specialist and we did physio at home, it was very painful for him and me (I couldnt bear giving him the physio as I knew it was painful for him). Without the physio he would have had to have one of those helmets and there was no way I was going to put him through that unnecessarily.

At NO TIME did any of the specialists tell me to get him a special mattress.

If a babys head is healthy and they can turn it without pain then they will do so naturally and there is just no need to spend money on things like this.

My suggestion would be to make sure there is stimulus at both sides of the baby when they are sleeping. We turned our babys cot around so that he was forced to turn his head to us (obviously when he was getting better) in order to see us in bed in the morning.

So in my opinion, this is a gimmick, nothing more.

tiamai_d

churchrat wrote: »

fgs!!!:rolleyes:
where are all the people with flat heads?? a quick look around my house, 5 of us in here and I don't see a single flat head. Of course, I also can look out of the window and I still don't see anybody with a flat head.
Yes, parents do put thier children down to sleep on thier backs--but this used to be common practice in great grandmas day and I don't remember loads of old people wondering around with flat heads. I fully understand that some children will suffer from a problem which will need correcting, but it sounds as tho a company with an eye on a "guilt trip" profit has decided to cash in on this.
If you really think your child has a problem which needs this mattress, speak to your Health Visitor/Dr before spending loads of money on one.

Yet I look at my 7yr old son with severe brachycephaly (head is flat) and my almost 4 yr old with moderate plagiocephaly (after STARband treatment for what was severe).

My nephew who is in the moderate plagio range...

My friends daughter who is now mild (after STARband treatment)

And over 500 mothers on a website I help run....

Tim_Deegan

tiamai_d wrote: »

Yet I look at my 7yr old son with severe brachycephaly (head is flat) and my almost 4 yr old with moderate plagiocephaly (after STARband treatment for what was severe).

My nephew who is in the moderate plagio range...

My friends daughter who is now mild (after STARband treatment)

And over 500 mothers on a website I help run....

And did you use the sleep curve mattress?

tiamai_d

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

How have we managed until someone took a bit of cheap reflex foam and then cut a V shaped wedge out of it?????

The whole thing is a sales gimmick that uses parents fears to overcharge for what is just a reflex foam mattress with a cut out.

There have been a few people on here saying that it worked for their child because their child didn't get a flat head........but how do they know if their child would have developed a flat head with a normal mattress? Statistics say that the chances are that their children wouldn't have flat heads anyway.

I am in the bed industry, so I know just how full of sales gimmicks the trade is. And now unfortunately these sales gimmicks have spread to what is probably the easiest market to persuade, because we all want what is best for our children.

One thing that we don't really know about is this: Because the baby's head is sitting in a cut out, then this means that the head is sitting lower than it would be normally. This could tilt the head back. How about some research to find out if this is good or bad.

and I'm in the preventing Plagio industry and I will tell you that if the baby has moderate to severe plagio and the parents are trying to correct this with repositioning, then the sleepcurve is worth the money.

The head is not tilted back, the curve of the head sits in the cut out, in this position there is actually less risk of baby choking as the chin is not pushed forward. Think about it! The neck will be lying straightas the curve of teh head is lower not the full head.

Also, I can point you to a large number of parenst who will say that this is not a gimmick at all. It has it's place.

Luckily for the majority of babies it wont ever be needed, but you cant say that on that basis it's a gimic. The majority of babies won't ever need speach therapy or physiotherapy, but thats not a gimmic is it?

tiamai_d

Tim_Deegan wrote: »

And did you use the sleep curve mattress?

No because I was assured by my HV that it just pop back out again when he turned 3.... and if it didn't happen with the older one, it would'nt have happened with the younger one either... and oh my gosh it didn't.

Tim_Deegan

tiamai_d wrote: »

and I'm in the preventing Plagio industry and I will tell you that if the baby has moderate to severe plagio and the parents are trying to correct this with repositioning, then the sleepcurve is worth the money.

The head is not tilted back, the curve of the head sits in the cut out, in this position there is actually less risk of baby choking as the chin is not pushed forward. Think about it! The neck will be lying straightas the curve of teh head is lower not the full head.

Also, I can point you to a large number of parenst who will say that this is not a gimmick at all. It has it's place.

Luckily for the majority of babies it wont ever be needed, but you cant say that on that basis it's a gimic. The majority of babies won't ever need speach therapy or physiotherapy, but thats not a gimmic is it?

The sales hype is trying to scare parents into paying over the top for what is just a foam mattress with a V cut in it, by saying that their baby has a 50% chance of having a flat head if they don't buy this mattress.

I keep having to repeat myself, but I have never said that the mattress won't work if it is needed. What I don't like is sales hype trying to scare parents into buying it.

Paremts don't tend to spend loads of money on speach therapy or physiotherapy if their child doesn't need it. But sleep curve are trying to scare parents into buying something they will probably never need.

Like I said my son had severe flat head syndrome, but is now fine without and special mattress, head band or helmet. Near the begining of this thread people were saying things like "I bought one of these mattresses and it stopped my baby having a flat head". But how do they know?

Tim_Deegan

tiamai_d wrote: »

No because I was assured by my HV that it just pop back out again when he turned 3.... and if it didn't happen with the older one, it would'nt have happened with the younger one either... and oh my gosh it didn't.

So in your case it may be worth the money for your next baby in August. The trouble is that if you do use one and your child doesn't get a flat head, then you have no way of knowing if it was the mattress that stopped it, or if they wouldn't have had a flat head anyway.

The reason for my son having a flat head was put down to his weight. He was 10lb 7.5oz when he was born.