13 months old with small head circumference

[bettymoo]

Hi, I am a new poster so please redirect me if I am posting in the wrong topic. I was not sure if health or development would be most suitable. My DD has always been on the small side, she was a month early and weighed 5lb but has always tracked the 9th centile (corrected) for weight and has met her developmental milestones: sitting at 6 months, crawling at 8 months, cruising at 9 months, although she is yet to walk unaided. At her 12 month developmental review with health visitor they said she was fine, although her weight is now on the 2nd centile because they no longer correct it after one year. I felt worried about this plus the fact that I am trying to give up breastfeeding and she won't drink milk from a cup so I wanted to get some advice about her diet and calcium intake. The GP has said her head circumference has fallen way way off the bottom of the charts (below 0.4th centile). When she was born she was on 25th centile for head circumference and then it was checked at 6-8 week review and hasn't been checked again until now. GP has referred us to paediatrician. Please can anyone offer some advice or experience on this? I am worried sick about my little girl. Thanks very much in advance

If she is developing normally and not doing worrying stuff like vacant episodes, crying in pain or anything out of the ordinary your GP has done the right thing in referring you to a pead. They will just want to check the sutures did not close to soon, and look for craniosyntosis. This is treatable and does not cause long term problems if caught early, so the right checks are being made. Microcephaly would have been picked up by now so forget that one.

TBH the main reason babies have small heads is because their parents do and 99% are problem free so please dont worry too much, your DD sounds to be doing fine.

Ds's head circumference fell from the initial reading of 50% down to 9% by 6 week check. They kept monitoring it until he was about 18 months but it stayed at 9%. They concluded that the initial reading was probably an error and told me that often the first reading wasn't very accurate.

Thanks very much sneezecakesmum and DeWe for your responses, I'm feeling much better this morning. She doesn't do any worrying stuff and yes she does seem to have inherited by body shape including my small head. So it would be unusual for her to have stayed on 25th centile for head circumference (if it was a correct reading in the first place). Thanks again for the reassurance