If your baby had a short femur in scans, what was the outcome?

[MrsArh]

So many threads online with people with the same concerns but no one ever comes back to update. Has anyone had an official short femur (below 5th centile) diagnosis and can give an update on the outcome?

Yes

I had a short baby

I am a short mum and dad was short so it wasn't hugely unexpected tonne, but it felt like the clinicians were quite concerned.

She's a teen now and still short!

DD was on the 3rd for her femurs, we were referred to fetal meds who told us she's being born to the family that made her.
We had growth scans every few weeks of pregnancy to check the growth of them.

She's 11 weeks now and just perfect. She kicks around loads and has no issues with her legs.

Thanks both. We aren't tall by any means, but me and DH are both average height so I'm finding it all quite alarming. We're being referred to fetal medicine so just in limbo until then. Totally fine with a short baby - I'm just so worried about his health. Being below the 5th centile seems to be an indicator for a whole range of conditions and I'm finding it so hard to step away from google.

Hello,

A long time ago now so I can't remember the specifics, but one of my children had a very short femur on the scan. All 3 are perfectly healthy. I can't actually remember which one it was, but I think it was DD1, who is 12 years old and bang on average height (though I suspect she'll end up slightly below, she's just had a big growth spurt). I think it was her rather than DD2, who is right down on the 0.04th centile for height but again a perfectly healthy child. (I'm small, but my DH is 6 foot - I think DD2 just takes after me.)
I hope everything is well - I remember vividly how scary it is when something isn't right on the scans. Easy to say, but try to keep away from google, making yourself anxious won't change the outcome at all and it won't help. (DH was obsessed with google throughout my pregnancies, none of which were straightforward at all, but which did result in healthy children - I know it's easy to say and hard to do.

On a slight positive, I found the fetal medicine unit really helpful - staffed by the kind of people you have totally confidence in (which wasn't always the case in the general maternity care) - I hope you see them quickly and they're able to reassure you.

Thank you walrus I hope it turns out to be nothing! Hoping the referral comes around quickly.

This also happened to us, to my third child. She just seemed to stop growing for a while and then the Doctors said she had short femurs. We were already under special care and having extra scans for other reasons. They monitored it for a few weeks until the consultant concluded that neither of us (the parents) were particularly tall and chances are we'd just have a short baby.

The baby is now 5, bright as a button and perfectly average height for her age Best wishes to you, it's all very worrying but chances are that things will be ok.

DD was on 5th centile at 20 week scan. She's now on 75th centile for height ages 7 and I reckon she'll be taller than me (not hard) within next 3 years.

Oh MrsArh you’re right. People don’t come back to update. I was like you searching for reassurance and I swore I would come back with updates and never did.

Our baby was perfectly fine.

It’s funny - it’s so worrying at the time and now I’m struggling to even remember exact details.

My baby was absolutely perfect despite the consultant terrifying us.
Now he’s a happy & healthy 5 year old with short legs. DH is short so it shouldn’t have been a surprise but you don’t think logically about these things.

I agree with @thewalrus. Google is not your friend. As you know people tend not to come back with positive updates so all I could find were stories with poor outcomes, which isn’t a true representation of the facts.

I’m sure it will be absolutely fine. Best of luck with everything

Yes and all worked out fine. Just sent you a PM

@MrsArh how have you been? You've been on my mind all week. Any more news yet?

DS had short femurs, massive head (98th centile) and at one point they started testing me for GD because his abdomen was also massive.

When he was born he was perfectly normal. Massive head, but that runs in our family (still has a massive head, in age 4-6 hats age 2, but growing along the same centile throughout). Bit of a pot belly but 50th centile for weight when he was born. Looks normal now. Shortarse - 50th centile for height when he was born, 25th centile now but so are me and DH so as expected really. No development concerns - he was prem so hit all of his milestones a bit late, but late as in end of normal range rather than truly late IYSWIM. Bright cheerful adventurous inquisitive toddler now.

My DD was below 3rd centile. Scan showed she was small but they induced me at32 weeks as I developed preeclampsia. She weighed just over 3 pounds. Her brothers were 10 pound babies so quite. Shock. She is 23 now and 5 foot so still small but no other issues. Hope all goes well for you

My DS had femur length at 1st percentile at 20 weeks, plus abdomen at 1st and head at 10th. It was super scary because there are harmless explanations but also scary ones.

At fetal medicine he was found to have a severely hypercoiled umbilical cord. It presented very similarly to placental insufficiency and IUGR. We were told he would probably need to be delivered early but he made it to 37 weeks.

He had scans every 2-3 weeks, and was well apart from his abdomen and femur dropping off the chart completely (his head went up to the 50th)

I was induced at 37+2, he got distressed during labour, but I was already pushing at that point. He was 4lb 14oz and had respiratory distress just like a premature baby. In fact, the paediatrician was convinced our dates were wrong and he was actually a 33-34 seeker (He wasn't - we had a dating scan).

He needed a week in the NICU, but was discharged with no further complications, bar a hernia that was repaired at 12 weeks. He hit the 1st percentile for weight at about 3 months and is now on about the 15th.

He's almost 11 months, perfectly healthy, very smiley and loves all food. He's currently climbing all over me.

All was well, thank you all so much for the kind words and thoughts

Hi @MrsArh - I'm currently going through the same thing... isolated short femur picked up at 34 week growth scan. I wasn't referred on to anyone and nobody seemed too concerned, except me once I'd googled it!! What was the outcome for you? Also, glad all is well 😘

That's brilliant, really pleased for you!

Me! He had short femurs and I was scanned every three weeks until 38 weeks when consultant said baby was most likely fine as there were no other indicators of an issue and I was signed off for a homebirth.
Baby was born at home and absolutely perfect.
He's almost one now and his torso is definitely long and his legs on the short side, not to anyone else, I only notice cos he weighs a different size top to bottoms.

my sil had this with one of hers, now a perfectly healthy 18 of about 5'9

My baby had 7th centile femur but 60 something abdomen and head measurement of 92 at his 20 week scan. He's now a toddler with a big head (like his dad, grandparents, uncles, baby cousin and me!) of average height and weight for his age (50th centile). His dad is average to slightly tall, I'm short. I did so much googling and panicked when I was pregnant. Apart from a GP appt about his head when he was tiny and it went just off the chart, which was all fine, he is totally fine.

Up until 1 years old he struggled to fill out trousers and rompers in the leg which fit elsewhere but he's caught up now.

Thanks all so much, really reassuring to hear some outcomes.

@Eliza1419 The first consultant I saw was concerned and referred me to fetal medicine. Fetal medicine weren't worried at all and said it's completely in the norm and if anything he may just be slightly shorter. Not sure what the outcome will be, got a little while left but so far so good! Hope everything turns out well for you

Nephew is just long bodied and slightly shorter legged. I think the medical term is built like a brick

My now 17 year old DS had a short femur .

He is now around 5ft 6 or so . His Dad is taller, I am short (5ft 2) and my Mother is same height as me , but my own Father and his father were tall . Mums Dad was short . Other than that he is absolutely no different to an average 17 year old.

I don't know much about the risk indicators of short femurs so apologies if this is insensitive. My dd had femur length off the chart long. She's 18 mo now and has pretty short legs. Babies grow and change so quickly, it's not always an indicator of something. Hope it all works out for you.

I had this and the consultants scared me to death with it - so much so I firmly believed my son had dwarfism. He was absolutely fine but is just a bit short. Nothing dramatically though!

@MrsArh how did this all go OP?

Our DS was showing 5th percentile for Femur and off the scale 90+ for head circumference so naturally we were so worried! Frantically googled, spent nights worrying about his growth.

Turned out that he did have little thighs, but nothing out of the ordinary - he gets a little more height from torso. Now at 4 months he's perfectly average - 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height!

His head was also quite large! We proved difficult getting him out and we needed forceps. He still has a big head but it's so cute and perfectly round - I blame his father haha for having a big head.

In hindsight, we should have thought about it rationally. Both me and DP have longer torsos and slightly shorter legs, so it was natural our DS would be the same.

Wish i had not spent so long worrying about it but il know for next time!