Parents of prems: growth curves question (head circ)

[hub2dee]

Hi,

Supposed to be in bed, but can't quite get this out of my head...

dd, 19 weeks old (4 weeks prem, IUGR) has grown in length and weight to 50th centile, which is great news, and developmentally seems 100%.

However, we saw the paed today and head circumference, whilst increasing between visits (and fontanelle still nice and open), has dropped from between 9th & 25th lines at birth to between 2nd and 9th today. It looks like we might get referred...

Anyway, whilst I appreciate the errors involved in measurement, and that there can be individual variance in head size etc... I wondered if others had had similar experiences (ie. uncorrelated weight / length and head circ), or prems catching up weight / length but lagging in head circ...

Thanks for any comments. Probably off to bed v. soon but will check / bump in the AM.

Hi Hub2dee, glad she's fine, you must both have recessive small-head genes!

Just to reiterate, dd wasn't early and dh and I both don't have small heads but our dd is quite tall and slender framed with rather a small petite head circumference. No-one seemed the least bit worried and I think she gets it from my mother's side.

Small-headed postman perhaps, Chuffed ?

at you, Hub2 dee. Chuffed is as pure as the driven snow!

genetics are strange things aren't they...It is amazing how much of grandparents and great grandparents are in dd

Hi Hub2dee. Hope this thread is still active for you. Thought you might be able to help. Little man was born at 28 weeks, spent 10 weeks in the incubator, born 850gr, came home at 2kg. He is now 10 months old and paed is very happy with his progress. He is certainly above average for a 7 month old baby and his head is above average for a 10 month old baby...in other words he has a big head. Paed not bothered about it, all I am concerned about is the size of his ears, they are bigger still....husband seems to think that his body will grow into his head and his head will grow into his ears!
I am more concerened about how long it will take to catch up with his peers, poor kid is still wearing 3-6mnth clothes!

Hi,

I think when you've had the sort of worrying birth / first few months start that you've had you're bound to be concerned about normal development and trying to monitor for any health issues etc.

Re: centile numbers - all you can do is look at them all together, with an open mind. You say the head circ is 'above average' - how much ? We had the opposite ! We were worried about a small head circ, but as the paed pointed out, someone's got to be towards the top or bottom of the charts !!!

I think it can take about 2 - 3 years for prems to catch up with their peers, but for some it can come much sooner, and obviously they catch up in different ways at different times IYSWIM.

FWIW, I think all babies look like they have big ears !!!

(I remember dd's feet looking truly ENORMOUS - in a totally 'this cannot be normal' way when she was born !)

hth a bit.

Thanks hub2dee. As you say, I spent the first 10 weeks worrying when he was in hospital and since then all I seem to do is compare, trying to see how far behind he is...totally wrong of me.
I live in Cyprus, so when you talk of 'centile' I am lost. The chart the paed uses when we visit, well ds head is on the middle line for 10 month baby, and correctively he is 7 months. His height is on the lowest line for a 7 month baby and his weight is on the middle point.
Someone told me that the bigger the head the bigger the brain!
Doctor is happy, so I presume I should be...New Year's Resolution....stop worrying about his progress.
Have a good New Year.