Today we have an incredible conversation with Jennifer Barnard, an Occupational Therapist who is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of plagiocephaly without a helmet, while treating torticollis quickly and effectively. You can hear the passion in her voice so make sure you check out her website and start following her on Instagram after listening to today's episode!
Be sure to check out the show notes on our blog at Harkla.Co/Podcast.
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products, child development courses, and The Harkla Sensory Club.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Today we have an incredible conversation with Jennifer Barnard, an Occupational Therapist who is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of plagiocephaly without a helmet, while treating torticollis quickly and effectively. You can hear the passion in her voice so make sure you check out her website and start following her on Instagram after listening to today's episode!
Be sure to check out the show notes on our blog at Harkla.Co/Podcast.
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products, child development courses, and The Harkla Sensory Club.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Welcome to the Sensory Project Show with Rachel and Jessica. We're here to share all things sensory, occupational therapy, parenting, self care and overall health and wellness from the therapists perspective, providing raw, honest, fun ideas and strategies for parents and families to implement into daily life. Thank you so much for joining us. Today's episode is sponsored by Harkla, a company that makes high quality products for everyday use. This includes sensory and therapy equipment, and products as well as the owners Casey and Amelia are local to Boise, which make this even cooler for us since they're local to us.
Jessica:Harkla is a company on a mission, they donate 1% of each month's sales to the University of Washington Autism Center, which funds cutting edge research and sponsored scholarships for children with autism to attend a summer camp.
Rachel:Stay tuned to hear more later in the episode as well as to get a special discount.
Jessica:Okay, let's get started.
Rachel:Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode of the sensory project show. You're listening to Rachel on Jessica. And this is episode 134.
Jessica:Today, we are going to have a great conversation with Jennifer from Baby Begin. So listen, take some notes, and then make sure you follow her on Instagram. It's just Baby Begin and check her out.
Rachel:Yes, she shares so so many good ideas and strategies for new moms expecting moms. So if this episode isn't necessarily relevant to you right now, then do us a favor and send it to someone who it is going to be valuable to because we need to spread the word like you wouldn't even believe. It's amazing.
Jessica:Like wildfire.
Rachel:Like wildfire. Yes.
Jessica:All right, let's do it.
Rachel:Hi, Jennifer, how are you today?
Jennifer:I'm really good. How are you guys?
Jessica:We're good. We're excited to talk to you.
Jennifer:All right, good.
Jessica:All right.
Rachel:But before we get started into all of the goodness that you're going to share with us today, we do have five secret questions that we're going to ask you just to make sure our audience knows your deepest, darkest secrets.
Jennifer:All right.
Rachel:Number one, would you rather jump on the trampoline for three straight hours or log roll down a hill for three straight hours?
Jennifer:Probably. If there were no bladder issues, probably do the jumping on the trampoline.
Jessica:That's what I said too because if I had to like log roll for three hours, I'd probably throw up.
Jennifer:A couple times.
Jessica:Definitely
Jennifer:yes. Yes. Everything is a body was working normally. Yes, I would did the jumping for sure.
Jessica:Great workout.
Rachel:No kidding.
Jessica:Yeah. Okay, so our next question is what is your favorite form of exercise?
Jennifer:So my favorite form for years has always been walking a dog. I love to walk dogs. But since COVID, I have started biking. So that's kind of my stress reliever. I've got a podcast on my phone. I have a little phone holder. I don't use earphones but I have a little phone holder on my bike and I just ride until I can't ride anymore. So that is my favorite but I always love walking dogs and Rachel I know that you walk your dog all the time. I'm always so jealous but yeah, that's my favorite.
Rachel:Well, like I said, you can come to Boise you can hang out with me and Trip. You can walk it with Kraft.
Jennifer:Don't tempt me.
Rachel:I am attempting you. Alright, number three. What is your favorite fruit?
Jennifer:I love all fruits. I would say a good kiwi. It's hard to be.
Rachel:Interesting.
Jennifer:I like the golden kiwis.
Rachel:Kind of new and never had one of those.
Jennifer:I don't know if you've ever had those but they're really good. Very sweet.
Jessica:It's hard to find good Kiwis here.
Jennifer:Yes, yeah. Yeah. Now, like Costco has really good golden Kiwis right now. So good to check them out.
Jessica:Yeah. All right. We're going continuing on with the food topic because apparently we came up with these questions when I was hungry. So what is something that you could eat every day for the rest of your life?
Jennifer:Arugula and ginger.
Rachel:Get out.
Jessica:Like together?
Jennifer:Yes. If you do that, the sugar ginger. If you cut that up and put it with arugula with lemon, lemon juice and olive oil, and you know whatever other vegetables you want, it is like heaven.
Jessica:Interesting.
Rachel:That's what you would eat for the rest of your life every day? Seriously?
Jennifer:I love arugula for sure. I love arugula.
Rachel:All right, that's hilarious.
Jennifer:Random.
Jessica:So random.
Rachel:Okay, last one our most favorite one of all what is your sensory quirk?
Jennifer:You know, I don't have a whole lot of sensory deals. I do like heavy work.
Rachel:Okay.
Jennifer:So, when I work out, I like to work out hard. Like I said, riding my bike, I go really hard. So I do I do like heavy work.
Rachel:Okay, beautiful.
Jennifer:Yoga. I like hot yoga. Kind of power yoga, rather than that relaxing.
Jessica:Oh, dear.
Rachel:You're intense. You're a seeker.
Jessica:She is. Yeah.
Jennifer:Yeah. But it's not but not all the time. It's just if I'm gonna work out I want it to be.
Rachel:That's what it's gonna be beautiful.
Jennifer:Yeah.
Jessica:I like it.
Rachel:Alright, so now that everyone knows all of your deepest, darkest secrets, tell us what you do? How do you do it, why you do it and all things?
Jennifer:Okay, so I own a company called Baby Begin and we specialize in treating plagiocephaly, which is infant flatheads, with helmets. To date, we have treated close to 6,000 babies and we have been able to successfully keep those babies out of helmets about 90% of the time. So if I get a baby, nice and young, I can keep them out of a helmet. I have a team of physical and occupational therapists that treat babies. We do home visits. And then recently in the past nine months, we've started doing a lot of virtual visits. So the reason we've jumped into that, well, first COVID kind of pushes you into more online stuff. But secondly, just seeing the need of babies literally all over the world that have flat heads. So we think it's a Texas thing. We think it's a America thing. It's literally all over the world.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:So the need is there and so we are we are loving, meeting people everywhere and helping families early on. So that's kind of our mission. My mission, personally, is to eradicate plagiocephaly. It's pretty big mission, because it's very common. It happens to close to 50% of newborn babies.
Jessica:Wow.
Jennifer:Yeah, it's very, very prevalent, very common. It's shot up in frequency, because the back to sleep campaign, which was a 92-94. Yeah, so that's when we see a huge increase in flathead and that's when all of the helmets started coming on board. And people are having a lot of issues with flatheads and head deformities.
Rachel:So were you were you working in this field before 92, so you could see the difference?
Jennifer:No, I didn't. I was my my background has always been early childhood. So I'm an occupational therapist, and I worked in ECI is what it's called in Texas. So early childhood intervention. So I was working Birth to Three and that started to get difficult just because it kind of wears you down a little bit. It was all home health and you see it, you saw a lot of kind of hard things. So I changed kind of pads and went and did the cranial helmets. So I worked for the leading provider of the cranial helmets. I did that for eight years and just after being in 1000s and 1000s of consults, where the mom is usually crying. She feels guilty. She would I mean always over and over over say I wish someone would have told me I just said I wish someone would have told me and I would have done something to fix it. And I just felt like you know what, there's a lot that we can do to fix it beforehand, or to keep it from getting to the severe stage because we were seeing some really severe deformities and it's all from sleeping position. It's such a basic thing that I decided to go out on my own. Yeah, see what I could do as far as educating and building awareness for new parents, and then really surprised at how much change we could get just through positioning. So that's kind of how I started. So I've been in the plagiocephaly world for almost 20 years now.
Jessica:That's amazing.
Jennifer:Yeah, it's a long time.
Jessica:Alright, so I have a question.
Jennifer:Sure.
Jessica:What are the negative side effects?
Jennifer:Of plagiocephaly?
Jessica:Yes, besides just cosmetically looks,
Jennifer:cosmetic is a big thing. It's also asymmetry. So as you guys know, as we know as therapists, everything works better when it's symmetric. So the jaw if you think of a job, because what happens with plagiocephaly is one side flattens, but it also pushes the whole skull forward on that side and pulls the other side back. So you have like this parallelogram shape with the head shape, so your jaw is off, the ears are off, the eyes are off. So everything is not going to work ideally, especially long term. The issues that arise are what causes the flat head is asymmetry in the neck. So one side of the neck is tighter than the other. So now we have issues of the baby's only rolling in one direction, they're using one side more than the other, they're not crawling in a good reciprocal pattern because one side is tighter than the other. So the symmetry is is what is of concern long term. Also, though, you'd have to remember cosmetic like cosmetic is kind of a it can be used as a negative term. We're not trying to make these babies perfect. We're trying to put them within a norm so when you look at their face, it's symmetric or close to symmetric as we can get. We don't want to have our babies walking around with one side of their face completely different than the other side. We want to put them within a norm. So or like, when you have a baby that's flat completely in the back of their head. That can be a little bit stigmatic when you when they turn to the side, and they have no volume in the back of their head. So it's cosmetic, but it's not like we're trying to make these perfect babies,. We're just trying to get them within a normal.
Jessica:Right.
Rachel:So is this something that most babies will grow out of without intervention, whether it's working with you, or a helmet?
Jennifer:For head shape, or tightness?
Rachel:Both.
Jennifer:For the head shape? Okay, for both. So for head shape, we see that babies will change a little bit once they start rolling, and they're off of that flat spot. But you're not going to get that huge volume change that you need to and it also depends on the severity, of course. But you're not going to get the change that you really need just without with with waiting and seeing if it corrects on itself. The reason being is a skull needs a pressure to flatten it so then it needs a pressure to reshape it. So once the baby is off of their head, most of the day - sitting up, rolling, sleeping - there's not a pressure on the head. So the brain doesn't know Oh, I just need to grow in the area that's flat, it's going to grow in a three dimensional way. So it's not going to just be very specific to the flattened area. So it doesn't really correct on its own. It will appear less obvious because of the surface area gets bigger, the head gets bigger, hair covers a lot of asymmetries so the head shape does not correct on itself. Torticollis, or the tight neck, also does not correct on its own, it can be lessened, especially if you're doing a little bit of stretches. But if someone does nothing and the baby's neck is very tight, it's going to have long term effects. They might be subtle, but you will see asymmetries in their development overall.
Rachel:It just makes me wonder about like before people were really recognizing torticollis, like what are these babies like as adults now who maybe were untreated with torticollis?
Jennifer:Yeah, it's interesting, because I think torticollis is really rearing its ugly head now because our babies are sleeping on their backs. When we were sleeping on our stomachs, most of the babies are turning slightly or kind of working that neck tightness out, but now that we have babies on their backs, they're in containers more they're on inclined surfaces more, that neck is getting tighter. So I do get a fair amount of messages from adults that say, Hey, thank you for doing what you're doing. I have a tight neck. I still have issues with it or I'm embarrassed about my head shape and I'm an adult so thank you for what you're doing. So I do think it's it does continue. We it's just not something I think people talk about, or they just gotten used to you know what, I'm not a very good golfer because one side is so much stronger than the other. You know, I don't turn my head is much to that side. So I have a different gear in my car, you know?
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:So I don't think it's as obvious as probably with babies.
Jessica:So I'm gonna go back to the plagiocephaly. And I'm curious if there's an age where it's like untreatable and it you know, can't be fixed anymore?
Jennifer:So, so your sutures in your skulls. So those of us who, you know, aren't skull experts, the sutures are kind of how I think of all of your bone plates are held to gather with almost like the zip to the zippers are open more when you're born to allow for brain growth. As those sutures close, you're not going to be able to change a head shape. So the sutures closed completely at two years.
Jessica:Okay.
Jennifer:But a helmet is really only effective up until maybe 18 months, when I used to work with helmets. If a parent came in, and they really really weren't concerned and very upset about the head shake, we would try to do a helmet a little bit later. But you're gonna get your best results with the helmet under a year. Now with repositioning, you can only do it till about for four to five months.
Jessica:Because then they're sitting up more and they're not in those different positions.
Jennifer:You're not able to position them for sleeping. So that's how we get the change with the head shapes and once they're moving, sleeping on their stomachs, there's just no way to keep them on that bulge area of the head.
Rachel:So do you want to position them differently when they are sleeping? And you know, I'm going to use my kiddo as an example because we've talked about it in the past. He can be our model child.
Jennifer:Yeah.
Rachel:We'll just we'll just explain that situation real quick. So you had said and I don't remember the term, but he has a very narrow head.
Jennifer:Yes. So he has a long and narrow pad, which is scaphocephaly.
Rachel:That's the one, yes.
Jennifer:Okay. So scaphocephaly. Was he breech?
Rachel:No, he was just really low in my pelvis for a very long time.
Jennifer:Okay.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:So all then that that was a great example of most of this happens in utero. So either they're wedged in there, they have some neck tightness. So then they come out, they prefer to turn on one direction. So in utero twins are at higher risk because there's less space. But But Trip has that long and narrow headshape, scaphocephaly. So he, it's like a roller ball in the back, e goes to the left, goes to the right, and he doesn't really he's not capable of staying completely in the center. So it's really amazing. You can tell with the baby's head shape how they sleep. Like, it's exactly what their head shape is. So with him, he's probably sleeps with his head in one direction or the other.
Rachel:Well, yes and it's not consistent. He'll switch back and forth. But it definitely is all the way to the left or all the way to the right. So I'm curious, can you modify that while he's sleeping? I mean, what worries me is like, Oh, if he's gonna spit up, you know, Can he turn his head to the side and eliminate that?
Jennifer:Yeah. So when you position that type of baby for sleep, and you're not restricting them, so you're not keeping like, you can never turn your head, you know, we show you how to position him. So he's more in the midline, and he's not able to turn all the way here to.
Rachel:Gotcha.
Jennifer:You know, back sleeping is safest. Right? So so he would be fine if he spit up because some babies are the opposite of him. They're completely flat across the back and all they do is sleep flat. They never turn their head.
Rachel:Oh, yeah. So then what do you do? How do they spit up?
Jennifer:They just spit up and it goes out the side.
Jessica:It like dribbles out.
Rachel:I'm just paranoid that he'll like choke on it, or these babies will turn their head and get rid of it.
Jennifer:And I think that's the biggest kind of pushback we get from parents who don't want to sleep their babies on their back is they're afraid of exactly that. My baby's gonna spit up and then he's gonna choke.
Jessica:But then you think about a baby and you just think about humans in general, and our natural survival reaction is going to be to turn your head.
Jennifer:Yeah, yeah and to cough.
Jessica:And to cough. Yes.
Rachel:Yeah, definitely.
Jessica:And I think that that's not talked about either. Really?
Rachel:No.
Jennifer:Right. Right. So we're built. We're okay. We were built to do that. It's just very scary when it's a newborn.
Jessica:Yeah, that's true.
Rachel:I have all the feels right now.
Jessica:When it's your first and after you've had a couple you're like, Yes, sir. You're like, Yeah, that's fine. It's fine.
Rachel:So true. Oh, my goodness.
Jessica:Okay. So then talks about that, you know, positioning the head, you can only do that for the first few months. So then are you working with a lot of families just from birth, to try to prevent this?
Jennifer:So here's the deal. You don't know there's an issue until there's an issue. So here in Dallas and Houston, we've we've spent a lot a lot of time educating pediatricians, so sometimes I'll get a referral of a baby that's five days old. So the pediatrician has picked up. Yeah, it's torticollis. There's already skull deformities. It's from inutero, difficult delivery, blah, blah, blah. So we get those babies very young, I would say most of our referrals come at two months of age. What I would like is for parents to know about this before they have their baby.
Jessica:Yes.
Jennifer:So that's why we talk to whoever will listen. Because we want new parents to know, hey, this is something that happens to 50% of babies. So you're probably going to experience some of it. So here's how you can prevent it and that's why I think social media and moms groups and things like that are so powerful. Because then you can hear about it. You don't necessarily have to know but at least it's in the back of your brain to think, Okay, John is always turning to the right. I remember I need to watch that. You know, so our goal would be that all new parents have this information, that they don't really necessarily call us and say, Hey, we just had a baby, and we'd love for you to come show us how to prevent it. It's usually once they notice a flat spot.
Rachel:Dang.
Jessica:I feel like it should just be like, you should just be a go to like, Okay, here's your checklist. As a new parent, you do this, you do this, and you do this, and you should be on that checklist.
Jennifer:Yeah, yeah. And I mean, to be quite honest, I'm a little surprised it isn't on there. I'm a little surprised that this is not discussed more because it's been around for so long. I mean, it's been around since 1994 and it's 2020. And it's 2020.
Rachel:What the heck.
Jennifer:I don't know. Yeah. And I think it's because like you said early on, and maybe it's just cosmetic. And so it's not as important, but I know that it's important to parents. Like they are very concerned when they see the baby's head is getting flat.
Jessica:And also it's not just the cosmetic looks there are, you know, the asymmetries that are going to affect coordination and visual motor skills.
Jennifer:Yeah. Yeah. So I'm I'm not and the other thing is a little bit of flatness is fine. Like, that's not what I'm speaking of. I'm speaking of these severe deformities. Moderate to severe deformities that we could have prevented had the family known.
Rachel:Yeah. Well, I know that you're doing a good job getting the word out. I mean, you did the free the babies campaign over the summer, which was awesome. I'm hoping they'll do more of those. Because I feel like that was such a great way of getting the word out there on social media. So maybe those families who are following certain accounts, maybe they saw oh, what does this mean free the babies? That's weird, you know, and they, they look a little bit more into it. And I know, I am a big, big advocate. When we were doing that campaign, we were with a family members who had just had a baby. That baby was like three months old and so they were kind of joking with me and saying, Oh, is this a container? Oh, is this?
Jennifer:Do you have to ask? It is.
Jessica:Oh, there you go.
Rachel:Exactly. So it's just like, it brings out awareness and it makes people ask those questions. Like, yes, why is this bad? You know, as a mom, now as a new mom, I mean, you don't want to purposefully harm your child or do these things. But also you have to find your sanity and you have to make sure.
Jennifer:Exactly, yeah. There's definitely a happy medium and I always tell my friends are now my my daughter's friends that are having babies. It's like, if you can get through the first two or three months with no containers, you're out you're out of the woods with the head shape and you can do it if you want.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:You know? By that time babies are too old. They don't want to be.
Rachel:No.
Jessica:Yeah.
Rachel:I love that.
Jessica:Yeah, you're getting, we're getting there.
Rachel:Let's take a quick break and talk about the sponsor for today's episode Harkla. Like we said earlier, they make high
Jessica:So we had the chance to try out a few of their products quality products, things like sensory swings, weighted blankets, lap pad, compression sheets, body socks, all the things you guys know we love. like one of their swings and weighted blankets, and they are definitely top shelf, you guys. Their products are great. And yeah, you can go buy a sensory swing on Amazon, but when you purchase it from Harkla you know where your money is going.
Rachel:If you're a therapist looking for new products. If you're a parent and you need some new equipment for your kiddo. Whoever you are, you guys have to check these guys out. ASAP.
Jessica:Okay, we're gonna get back to the episode but stay tuned because at the end of the episode, we're gonna give you a code for a discount with these guys. You did mention In a little bit about how so much of this starts inutero?
Jennifer:Yeah.
Jessica:And so I'm curious what, you know, those expecting a child can do?
Jennifer:So, so one of the questions we ask on our, with all of our new moms is how is the movement in utero? Did he move around a lot? Did he change positions a lot? Did he drop early? Sometimes babies when they drop early, and they're stuck in that birth canal for a while, like breech babies, same thing there, they don't have a whole lot of room to move. So if you're pregnant, and your baby is not moving around a lot, where you always feel them kicking on one side, and by moving I mean, moving, not just kicking their legs, right? Kind of changing, but sometimes it kicks over here. Sometimes it kicks over here. You know, kind of a nice variety of movement. There's probably not going to be issues. Difficult delivery, sometimes the baby's head is wedge, they have a hard time getting the baby out, it's a little bit traumatic, sometimes that can cause some issues with the neck. You know that that SCM muscle? So those are the kinds of things that and then when the baby comes out, just keeping a really close eye on where that baby keeps their head.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:Because I hear a lot of times that parents say, Well, I thought he didn't have any head control. So he just always laid on that side. That's true, the baby does not have head control, but they shouldn't always be in the same position all the time.
Jessica:So then, are there ways to get your baby to move in utero and to change that position more?
Jennifer:Not necessarily. Not necessarily. You're kinda you're kind of stuck with what you're given and then you just have to be aware of it once the baby comes out.
Rachel:So let's talk a little bit about tummy time. Because that's a great way to work on preventing plagiocephaly and all of the stuff which I didn't realize there were so many cephalies. We need to talk abou that. First, let's talk about tummy time and then we'll chat about all of the different plagiocephaly. All the different-cephalies.
Jennifer:Yeah. So tummy time.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:What's your question?
Rachel:Just, I mean, maybe you have a couple of tips to help families, maybe keep their babies in tummy time. Those ones who are avoiding tummy time with a rolling out of tummy time. How often babies baby doing tummy time? That sort of stuff.
Jennifer:Okay, so so the key that I don't think people know is tummy time has to start immediately. So it can look however you want when the baby is a newborn. On the parents chest is everybody's favorite. It absolutely can be Dad, it's a great bonding thing for dads. You know, we get the bonding through nursing, if we're choosing to do. Dads don't always get that. So the skin to skin with dads on the timing is awesome. Any any position that gets them off the back of their head, so they need to be parallel to the ground. So sometimes people say, Well does tummy time counts, if he's on my shoulder? It's good. It's not bad. But that's not true tummy time. So initially, right when you get home from the hospital, it should start. You can do it over a Boppy pillow, you can do it over your lap, you could do it on your chest, and then gradually over if when you started that early baby start to really enjoy it, tolerate it, it's not going to be this huge catastrophe every time you say okay, it's time to do tummy time, right? They're gonna it just as an it's very natural position for babies if when you started early. So then gradually you're increasing that and I tell family is do it every time the baby's awake. So it's feed, play, sleep, feed, play, sleep, feed, tummy time, play, sleep. You know, just put it into your daily schedule and I was thinking about this this morning, and I wanted to share this. When you do tummy time, your energy and what you say, makes a huge difference with your baby and people don't believe me. But even newborn babies, expecially with the mother, they know if this is supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing. Right? So you are not going to say I know you hate this, I'm sorry we have to do this, you know? You're not going to say that. You're gonna be like, it's time to go, we're gonna have so much fun. This is so good for you, like oh, this is so fun. And then it becomes like oh, okay, alright, it's kind of hard. We can do it. You know? That's how you want to present it because if you're constantly apologizing and feeling bad and waiting till the last possible minute to do it, then it's going to be a big deal.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jessica:For sure that.
Jennifer:You know, that it's really good for your baby and you're doing the best thing for your baby by doing tummy time.
Rachel:I know that some families who struggle with reflux with their babies.
Jennifer:Yes.
Rachel:They are hesitant to do tummy time and I think you know, that's an important topic to speak to. If you have any advice in that area, or?
Jennifer:Of course, I have answers to all your questions.
Jessica:Oh, good.
Jennifer:No. So with reflex, so here's what people don't realize. First of all, there's different kinds of reflex, right? There's painful, horrible reflex, and then there's reflux where the baby just spits up and sometimes it's excessive.
Rachel:Yes.
Jennifer:So let's talk about the spit up, excessive spit up. If the baby is gaining weight, and there are no concerns with weight gain, that is okay. Like it's a laundry issue, but you just clean it up and keep on going. Right? So if it's not painful, if it's just a pain in the butt, do it anyway. If it's the painful reflex, then you do want to keep them upright after their feed for 10 or 15 minutes. But you do continue to do tummy time and the reason being, tummy time works the abs. It works the muscles in the core and in order to help reflux, we need to work those muscles. We do not need to be sitting them in an incline container for hours and hours and hours because that's not working their body. That's not making them stronger. In a lot of times research is showing us it doesn't necessarily help reflux. So we might as well get them on the ground, if it's safe. If your baby's aspirating, of course we're not talking about that, and do it to tolerance. So if the baby you'd be surprised that babies with severe reflux that I've worked with actually do pretty darn well on their tummy.
Rachel:Awesome.
Jennifer:We're just we just been thinking, oh, gosh, we can't do it. We can't do it. But once you get them on there, give them that nice, you know, relaxed, pat their booty kind of relax, you'll find that they actually tolerate it very well. And it's so good for these babies.
Rachel:The benefits outweigh the challenges.
Jennifer:Yes, but we just again, we have to believe that.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:Right? We have to know in our heart. Okay, I'm going to try this because it really is going to help you in the long run.
Jessica:Yeah, totally.
Jennifer:If you put the baby on their tummy, you've pumped it up. Everything's fun. They're there for two minutes and they're like, screaming, roll them off.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:You know, and regroup and do it again.
Rachel:Your positive attitude? Yes, definitely. I think that's so huge. We talked about that all the time. It's all about your approach and your excitement about it. So I'm glad
Jennifer:Yeah, yeah. And you know, I'm sure it's the same that you brought that up. with kids that you guys work with. And our trainers, like our trainers, they'll say, I know you hate planks, and I'm so sorry I'm making you do planks. No, they're like, this is so good for you. Come on. Let's go to muscle. Let's go.
Jessica:Yeah.
Jennifer:Same thing. Same thing. We don't need to feel sorry for our babies unless they're in pain. But pretty normal stuff.
Rachel:Most of the time they're pretty resilient.
Jessica:Oh, for sure.
Jennifer:Very resilient. Yeah, it's amazing.
Jessica:Yeah.
Rachel:Let's talk about all the-cephalies.
Jennifer:Okay. So the most common is plagiocephaly, which means asymmetric head shape. So those are the babies that like to turn to one direction more than the other. Okay, that's involved in in the common denominator there is the torticollis. So torticollis is tightening on one side. They have they typically have torticollis and that makes sense always turn in the same direction. So plagiocephaly is asymmetry. Then you have brachycephaly, which are those babies that are true back sleepers, like they want to be on their back all day long. They love their bouncy seat. They love their overhead play gym. They're usually very relaxed, happy babies. They're pretty laid back because they just hang out on their back all day. So that's brachycephaly. So they have flattening across the back and then they're usually wide. So above their ears they have some width.
Rachel:Kind of like an upside down pear shape.
Jennifer:Yes. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And brachycephaly can have asymmetry. So sometimes babies with brachy they lay on their back, but then they turn a little bit more in one direction. So then you have a combination of plagiocephaly and brachycephaly.
Rachel:Okay.
Jennifer:Then the third head shape is scaphocephaly and that's complete opposite of brachycephaly. Its the long and narrow. So I don't know if you guys have been around NICU babies. A lot of NICU babies have that long and narrow head shape.
Rachel:I just didn't know that there was a term for it. So I probably noticed that out there head shape was long and narrow, but I didn't know that that was actually a thing. So
Jennifer:Yeah. So there's three different kinds, but definitely the most common is plagiocephaly.
Rachel:Okay, sounds good.
Jennifer:And it can come in all degrees of severity. So you can get very, very mild or just a little spot on the back or you can have really severe where everything is just.
Rachel:Wow, I know that one way of identifying that is that ear position. So if you look from the top of their head, I believe which ear is in front of the other ear.
Jennifer:Yes. Now, if it's an ear, if there's an ear shift, you're automatically at a moderate severity.
Jessica:Oh, wow.
Jennifer:Because it's not just in the back. Now the skull base has been affected. So one ear is more forward. And I do exactly that I put my finger in the in the hole of the ear, and then look from above. And that will tell you, you know, where your finger position is will tell you how much the ears are off.
Rachel:Interesting.
Jessica:So then at that point, do you recommend helmets?
Jennifer:So I recommend helmets if the baby if we've worked, or any baby, if the baby is sleeping on their tummy, and you haven't seen a lot of change within two weeks to a month, and the head is still concerning to you. That's when I would recommend a helmet.
Jessica:Okay.
Rachel:Gotcha. So you do refer out for helmets? Sometimes?
Jennifer:I do. Yeah, yeah. Yes, we can't correct a head and it's still of concern and noticeable, we absolutely refer for helmets. We're not against helmets. We just want therapy to be the first line of defense, rather than immediately sending them to helmet.
Jessica:Yeah.
Rachel:I mean, helmets are uncomfortable, you know.
Jessica:I wouldn't want to in our home.
Rachel:And they have to be in there for hours.
Jessica:And they're expensive.
Jennifer:Yeah. That's not to say that, you know, helmets work very well and when you're to that point, you want your baby's head to look as good as it can. So we are not against helmets at all. We just, you know, we want people to know that there's another way before you decide on a helmet.
Rachel:It's a more proactive approach, rather than reactive.
Jennifer:A little bit more conservative. Plus, you're dealing with the neck and the head with therapy. So with a helmet, you still have to go to therapy and therapy is very important, because you have to address the neck tightness. Otherwise, you still have all of those asymmetries.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:So that's a key point, if you're on a helmet, you really still need to be doing physical or occupational therapy.
Jessica:So then let's talk a little bit more about torticollis.
Jennifer:Okay.
Jessica:And, you know, talked about how it's probably starts in utero, just like, you know, so many other things.
Jennifer:Yeah.
Rachel:And birth experience.
Jessica:And birth experience. Yes.
Jennifer:Right. So So torticollis is, is worsened by incline container. So anything inclined, so you will probably and Trip is a very good example. When he's laying on the ground, he maybe has a turn preference, but I don't see a lot and I'm just stalking you. So I only see what you're posting in your stories, right? So he might have a little bit of a term preference. But when he's on the ground, he does not have a tilt very much. When he's in his car seat, he has a tilt.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:Any incline will make the neck tighter. So that's why when we did that free the babyies campaign, it was it was to promote normal development. But it's also to say, we gotta get these babies out of containers, because it's making their neck tighter. And if 50% of our babies are having flat heads, and 80% of those is caused from torticollis, get them out of containers, and we can get them you know, in a more normal position.
Jessica:That's amazing.
Jennifer:Yeah, so so inclined containers and if you guys, I mean, you just had a baby, the products that are available for babies right now.
Rachel:You open Pinterest, and it's like, container, container, container, and they're all you know, bougie and fancy, and they make you the marketing makes you think that you need them.
Jessica:Hmm,
Jennifer:Yes, yes. And that's a huge, huge disservice I think
Jessica:That's amazing.
Rachel:Well, we talked about primitive reflexes a lot and we're doing to new parents is we've got to, we're, we're those reflexes won't integrate naturally, if the child is in a telling them that they need 15 containers to make their baby container, happy. And not only is it not make them happy, it's expensive, and it's causing problems. So yeah, so torticollis it's
Jennifer:Excellent point, excellent point, or if they have worsened by containers. So get your baby out of containers, put them on the floor, let them be free birds. You know, let him let them do what they want to do and a lot of times they'll work it out on their own if they have the opportunity to. a strong term preference. The other side's going to integrate, right?
Rachel:One side of the ATNR is going to integrate and the other isn't.
Jessica:Yep.
Jennifer:That's very interesting. Yeah, I need to look at that. I need to look at that kind of long term.
Rachel:Yeah. So let's kind of talk about what the what the biggest challenge is with what you do right now.
Jennifer:So would you say the big biggest business challenge or challenge for my patients?
Rachel:I kind of want to know about both.
Jessica:yes, I say let's do both.
Jennifer:Okay. So the business, our biggest business challenge, first of all, is getting to the people that need our services. Letting them know that there are options out there other than wait and see, or run and get your helmet. So that's the other one, though, is, so we need to get to those families, but we need to educate the people that are seeing these babies early on. So if every pediatrician looked at the head and the neck at two months, and as they saw an issue, if they immediately referred, we could cut this down by 70%, I'm sure.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:Right. Because I can we can get our hands on these babies and fix them.
Rachel:Well, and what's interesting is I had to bring it up to my pediatrician and ask him about it and have him look and see what his thoughts were.
Jessica:What were his thoughts?
Rachel:He wasn't super concerned. He knew what scaphocephaly was and so he turned him over and was looking for a little bit of the torticollis. He could notice, like his ears were a little bit off. But he didn't. I mean, he didn't bring it up. He didn't say anything about it. It was me advocating and I'm a medical professional. So I know to advocate for him. But all these families who are like I don't even know that's the thing. They wouldn't know to bring it up and like you said, so many pediatricians won't refer out to that.
Jennifer:Right? So so that's our one of here in Dallas, that's our biggest. We've got our pediatricians that they're almost our biggest competitor because they, they want to do the stretches in the office or they want to wait and see. You just keep the baby on the other side and I'll see you at four months. Well, by that time, I don't have a whole lot of time to fix that head.
Rachel:What the heck?
Jennifer:You know, you've lost that two months. So that's probably our biggest challenge is just convincing, like getting people on our bandwagon to say, we have got to get this early, and we need to be aggressive with it and then we can just wipe it off the you know, cross it off the worry list.
Jessica:Yeah.
Jennifer:So that's our biggest challenge. The biggest challenge for parents I think, is just knowing that the floor is okay to put your baby. Good, safe, wonderful place to put your baby. And I think just with all of the containers and all of that you have to do this. You have to do this. You have to do this. It's so confusing to new parents. That that we just need to go back to old school and do floor or playpen or whatever. You know, that's that's safe.
Rachel:Yeah, I do have a thought. I get a lot of people asking about other kiddos and dogs and I can't put my child on the floor. Can I put them on the bed? Can I put them in a playpen? What are your thoughts on that?
Jennifer:So there's. Yeah, I mean, when you have siblings and pets, there's there's going to be a happy medium that you have to find. So play pens, gated play yards are good options. The bed is fine. It's just not as it doesn't give us much input underneath the baby. So they're not going to move around a whole lot. I just think of them in a big pillow. Like this cloud of just wonderfulness where they're not going to move a whole lot, or put the dogs outside. Or when siblings are sleeping that's when we do our floor time. First thing in the morning, you know or after diaper changes, roll them over and put them on the on the changing pad for a little while. Just just being cognizant of when you can sneak in the floor. There's ways to do it for sure.
Jessica:Well, I was gonna say even like instead of spending money on containers, spend money on like the plastic baby gate thingies and you can create like a whole area that's blocked off for your baby to be on the floor where you know the dogs can't get to the baby.
Rachel:Definitely.
Jennifer:Exactly. Exactly. And I've seen people get very creative even if they're in a small apartment. They get rid of theottoman. They block off a corner, you know, in front of the couch and just put the baby gay right there in the corner and that's the baby's play area.
Jessica:Yeah. Yeah.
Jennifer:Yeah, you just have to get creative. But it's and like you said you could save so much money not buying containers that you can buy a playpen or a pack and play.
Jessica:Yeah.
Jennifer:Or what it's called.
Jessica:Yeah.
Jennifer:To use in your in in your family room.
Rachel:I have never felt a pack and play. But is the base very firm like the floor? It is. Okay.
Jessica:I was going to say I had one with Logan and it was perfect.
Rachel:There you go.
Jennifer:Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's, it's kind of a hard cardboard and then it's a very thin pad.
Rachel:Gotcha. Okay.
Jennifer:So yeah, they work great.
Jessica:Yeah. So I feel like probably your best advice for parents is to just put your baby on the floor.
Jennifer:What's your baby on the floor and address anything neck turn concerns or any neck issues sooner rather than later?
Jessica:Yeah. Don't wait and see. Yeah. What advice could you give to other therapists?
Jennifer:So you guys are the first to know but we're coming out with training courses for therapists. The reason being is our goal with Baby Begin was to, you know, eradicate plagiocephaly and my original business plan was, I'm going to have therapists, Baby Begin therapists, all over the United States, right? Well, that's, that's a lot of money. It's a lot of time. It's, it's just too much. So I've switched and now I want to just build an army. So I want to build and trained therapists, just like I would train my own therapists. I want to train them all over the world.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:Because we get a lot of increased with therapists all over that says, we just want to know what you do because these heads are looking great. We know how to treat torticollis. We can use a little tweaking with that. But show us how you change that heads.
Rachel:Yes.
Jennifer:We're almost there. We're getting them done. We're filming. We're doing so much cool stuff and so that's kind of my that's what want to do from here. Get on it, learn the techniques, and let's like, let's beat this together, rather than just Baby Begin. Like, let's let's do it full scope.
Jessica:Yeah, definitely.
Jennifer:For therapists like with aside from promoting our course, what I really think is that they just need to just be aggressive with marketing to the pediatricians. Because I think that therapists are probably doing a really good job with the torticollis, but they're getting on too late. You know, like I have therapists all the time, like, how do you get them early? Like we're getting them at six months. Well, at six months, that torticollis is a beast to correct. It's very long term. So we just have to do better at marketing to the pediatricians.
Jessica:Totally
Rachel:Well, then at our clinic, we don't ever get any infants. I wish that we would.
Jessica:I think that the youngest, the clinic that we work at, the youngest that I've seen is maybe eight or nine months.
Jennifer:With torticollis?
Jessica:No, just with developmental delays.
Jennifer:So where did where do you have an early childhood program? Do you think that's where they send their babies?
Jessica:Probably and I actually think maybe they're doing it through the hospitals.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jessica:And through the physical therapy in the hospitals.
Rachel:But it's an area that lacks in Idaho.
Jessica:Oh, for sure.
Rachel:Mention it definitely lacking. There's just not enough services. There's not enough providers and kids are only getting seen like every other week. It's yeah, it's not enough. So.
Jennifer:yeah. Well, it's a it's a good opportunity for you guys. Because there's you know, there's so many babies that need all of this, developmental. All these babies have developmental delays. I mean, not all of them, but a lot of them have developmental delays. Simply because back sleeping, no tummy time, reflexes.
Jessica:Seriously.
Jennifer:Torticollis.
Rachel:And a lot of the we didn't even touch on the sensory processing concerns that come with that.
Jessica:Immense.
Jennifer:Yes, yes. Yeah. So it's a big, it's a big opportunity, for sure.
Jessica:So on that note, how can our listeners find you and all the things that you're doing?
Jennifer:Yeah, so we have a website. We're getting a new website here soon, but we have one already in place, and you can refer yourself on there. So if you are in Texas, you'd push one button. If you're out of Texas, you push another. We can get to you within a week. So a lot of therapy groups cannot do that. So even if it's in person we can get to you within a week and the reason why we do that is because we need to get to these babies right away. We can't wait two or three weeks to see them. I can get their head corrected by that point.
Rachel:Oh, wow.
Jennifer:I've got to get them quickly. And then the virtuals, you know, we'll do as much as we can virtually. If your baby needs therapy, we refer them out. So that's gonna be another benefit of let's say, I get a referral in or a patient reaches out to me from Boise and says, Hey, do you know anybody in Boise? I sure do and then we can, you know, hook them up with the therapist in that area that have been trained in that are good at what they do.
Jessica:So whole network.
Jennifer:Yeah, so that's what I mean by building that army. So we can just send you to this one. Send it to this one.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:Rather than us trying to do at all
Jessica:Yeah.
Jennifer:BabyBegin.com and Baby Begin on Instagram.
Rachel:Yes, you guys. Definitely follow them on Instagram because you provide so much information. So much knowledge. It's cool.
Jennifer:We always hope that we do but you know, you never know. It's a beast in and of itself.
Jessica:Yeah. For sure.
Jennifer:Taken no time off. I will. I will note since you've had your baby.
Rachel:No there's no such thing as maternity leave. Yeah. So it's, uh, yeah, it's it's been fun, though. I mean, we love just connecting with people like you and and yeah, it's, it's so fun.
Jennifer:Yeah, yeah, it is fun and you make really good friends like, on Instagram. I'm really surprised at how many people I have become close with and
Rachel:Me too.
Jennifer:Learn so much. Like, for therapists, it's even such good learning.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jennifer:How did you guys get started?
Rachel:So we actually we went to school together, we worked in clinic together, and then one day, we were like, Let's start a podcast. There's not enough information for parents out thereb ecause you know, when we work with our kiddos. We are just one on one with the kiddos, we're not treating with the parents, and so we just felt like that parent education was lacking. And so that was really the the reason behind starting the podcast, and then come to find out.
Jennifer:So that was first?
Jessica:Yes.
Rachel:Well, okay, that wasn't first. The products or the sensory products and the weighted vests were first and then the podcast was probably the year after that, I think.
Jessica:Yeah.
Jennifer:So how did you decide to do the products because that's a huge thing?
Rachel:You know, we just felt like there was a need for weighted vests that didn't look like straight jackets and it's definitely been an a long process getting the products. But there was just there was a need for it. So we figured out how to do it.
Jennifer:And they are amazed amd they're so cool. I was looking at your Etsy shop. I mean, just such cool stuff.
Rachel:Yeah, we've got a lot of cool feedback and families who, you know, the kiddos wouldn't wear weighted vest to begin with, they'll wear ours and I just think that's, that's awesome to be able to offer that.
Jennifer:Yes. So who does your sewing?
Rachel:Um, my mom actually does a lot of the sewing. She does all of it now because she's, she just recently retired. So she's taken on the sewing and then we do have the weighted vests that we manufactured. And so we have those as well. So.
Jennifer:Okay, good job on that. So then you did your podcast?And then you decided to do courses?
Jessica:I don't even remember how we came up with the idea. But we started with a membership website and we we just were brainstorming and we were listening to other business podcasts on how to you know, create online content. And the idea of a membership website came up and we're like, let's try that. And then from the membership website came the courses.
Rachel:Yeah,
Jennifer:Okay. Okay. It's always evolving. Then you think you're good and then Oh, my God. Now we need to do this.
Rachel:Yeah, exactly.
Jessica:Yes.
Jennifer:You've done an amazing job. You guys have amazing content.
Rachel:Thank you. Yeah.
Jessica:Well, we think the same about you so.
Jennifer:Well, thank you. Thank you. You guys have such good stuff that everybody needs to learn about and I refer new families to all the time.
Rachel:Thank you. Well, we'll just keep referring each other back and forth.
Jessica:Yes. Let us know when those courses are ready or if you need like some testers, or something.
Rachel:Awesome. Well, Jennifer, we can chat with you all day about this stuff. It's just it's so important to get the word out and we are so grateful that you took time out of your busy schedule.
Jennifer:Yes, well thank you for advocating for even young baby.
Jessica:Oh, Yes.
Jennifer:I really appreciate you having me on so we can get just educate as many people as we can of all ages.
Jessica:All right, you guys. She has so much passion for what she does, and I'm so excited for all the new things coming in 2021.
Rachel:If you guys Love this episode or if you know someone who loved this episode, please take a minute to leave us a review on iTunes. Those reviews seriously help us reach more people in need of this information and help us reach that half a million download mark that we are so close to reaching.
Jessica:And make sure that you go follow Jennifer on her Instagram, check out her website, and let her know that you listen to our episode.
Rachel:All right, you guys, thanks for being here and we will chat with you next week.
Jessica:Okay, bye.
Rachel:All right, you guys. One last reminder, this episode was sponsored by Harkla, our newest favorite sensory product company. With less opportunity for movement in today's virtual world and with how much we love obstacle courses, this company is the perfect place to shop for equipment to set up bomb obstacle courses.
Jessica:Okay, so if you're unfamiliar with obstacle courses, let's give you an example. You can use Harkla's indoor therapy swing and your child can swing on their stomach to gather in items such as a puzzle piece. Then climb out and jump across a pillow bridge while in their Harkla sensory body sock and place their puzzle piece on the board. Then do a wheelbarrow walk. Super simple, super fun, and so many benefits.
Rachel:So if you guys are ready to check them out, go to Harkla.co/sensory and you can save 10% on any of their products by using the code sensory.
Jessica:We will link this in the show notes in case it's easier for you to have it in writing and that's it.
Rachel:We are so excited to work together to help create confident kids all over the world and work towards a happier, healthier life. Just a friendly reminder this is general information related to occupational therapy, pediatrics, and sensory integration. We do not know you or your child; therefore we do not know any specific things, therefore you should always refer back to your pediatrician and occupational therapists for more information.