my baby's head is not growing fast enough

[daisyartichoke]

dd 7 weeks had 6 week check, her head was on 0.4 centile and is now no longer on the centiles. she is putting on weight well and has grown in length, but her head has only grown 0.7 cm since birth. the doctor said not to worry yet, but i am! will she catch up? it is frustrating as i can't do anything to change it. i'm looking for reasurance (sp?) has this happened to anyone else and did they catchup?

[LaDiDaDi]

What sort of size heads have you and her daddy got? I think I've got an average sized head but one of my friends reckons she has a pinhead and another has trouble getting hats to fit as hers is so big!

[misdee]

remember that head measurements arent accurate beacuase no-one measures at exactly the right point.

[mrsdarcy]

I echo Misdee's point. My DD had v regular head measurements as a newborn and I insisted they were done by the same person as otherwise the measurement is all over the place. If you compare the suggested method in the red health record book, with the method suggested by the child growth foundation (I think that's it), they are different.

I think they get flappy about heads as they are supposed to grow in a nice regular way, rather than have growth spurts like you can get with height and weight.

[bensmum3]

My dd is now 11 yrs and has always had a small head (although she has also always been petite), her head is now the same size as my 3 yr old and smaller than her 8 yr old brother, but she is doing well at school and apart from having a smaller choice of cycle helmets ( most have baby patterns) it has done her no harm. Try not to worry.

[daisyartichoke]

thank you. feeling reassured

[mower]

I was worried about my ds head as well. He is on 9th centile, but is on 98th for lenght and 75th for weight. His head was also mishaped from labour, but we take him to an osteopath and it is starting to look a better shape but hasn't made it grow at a faster rate. My husband is really tall and has quite a small head for his height. Ds development hasn't been affected in anyway because of this so I am not too worried.

Please try not to worry my hv said as long as it is growing there is no problem.

[hex]

Both of my daughters had head circumfs on 9th - they measured 50th on weight and over 75th for height - both are bright and my dd1 has just brought her first report home which was fantastic. Try not to worry - tbh, I don't know whether they've caught up or not cause once they started reaching the developmental milestones way ahead of their time, I just figured it wasn't hindering them. (They look fine too)