It's one of those overdue blogs about a somewhat seasonal topic, which slips my mind before I have a chance to dictate my thoughts.

Many families are about to hit the road for longer car trips with young children, including some of babes in car seats. Car seats were designed with safety in mind first and foremost, and in the quest to prevent any sort of airway obstruction, were meant to be remarkably safe and remarkably uncomfortable for many children at the same time. As a result, car trips can turn into screaming matches of unhappy little humans balking at the pressure on the back of the head and neck from a rigid cart seats with no support. If you look at it from an adult perspective, none of us would want to be resting her head in that manner for very long either. The problem is compounded by the fact that many children with post birth related upper cervical extension misalignment will really be digging the back of the occiput into the rather inflexible material of the car seat, or aggravating any sort of upper cervical rotational misalignment when they fall asleep.

A relatively happy middle-of-the-road solution that doesn't compromise airway and provides much-needed comfort is one of these cervical support pillows that are designed for car seats. The earlier model were called the butterfly pillows, and only addressed cervical support, but some of the newer versions have a posterior occipital credible as well. I find is more beneficial especially for the children that are still trying to recover from occipital plates protrusion, a common birth related cranium miss shaping.