What causes infantile scoliosis?
As previously mentioned, the exact cause of infantile scoliosis is unknown. However, the considerable amount of medical research that has gone into understanding scoliosis has led to the development of two main hypotheses for how the condition may be caused. There is evidence to suggest that intrauterine molding may be responsible for the development of infantile scoliosis. With intrauterine molding, the spine is affected during fetal growth because of abnormal pressures exerted by the walls of the uterus on one side of the fetus’ body, or abnormal positioning of the fetus within the uterus. This hypothesis is supported by epidemiological data, which demonstrate that there are higher rates of plagiocephaly (a slight flattening of one side of the head) and developmental dysplasia of the hip (a condition that affects one of the hips) on the same side as the spinal curve in infants with idiopathic scoliosis. A second theory suggests that postnatal external pressures are exerted on the spi
