Baby head centile off the chart

[05cnorris]

Hi everyone

Looking for some advice and hopefully positive stories. I’ve just had the HV come round as I texted her about my little boy who’s 13 weeks. A few family members have said light heartedly that he has got a big head and I haven’t been able to stop noticing it. He also has like a ridge at the back of his head either side of his back soft spot. She measured his head and it was off the chart. She’s told me he will be referred to GP. I am making an appointment for him tomorrow but I can’t help but now worry. Has anyone had this and everything be fine? He’s a big boy, weighs 15 pound 6 and I think he’s also quite tall which we are in our family. She couldn’t comment on the ridge as she said she wasn’t sure but to speak to GP about it.

Thank you

My DSs head has always been off the top percentile. He was sent for an MRI at 6 months to check no issues. When the consultant saw us at the follow up he measured mine and his dad's head, which are apparently pretty big!! In his letter summarising he commented that all was fine but he'd always have trouble buying hats to fit. He's 14 now and that's definitely true

Should have also said he was right at the top of the length percentile and pretty close to the top on weight. I know it's a really concerning time, but it isn't necessarily anything to worry about.

I recently had something similar. My child’s head was on the chart but only just at about 98 percentile. I got a GP check and he said he wasn’t sure if there was anything and so refered us to paediatrician. That was last week. Thankfully everything went well and paediatrician said he seemed fine. He measured both mine and partner’s head and turns out I’m 93 percentile for women 😂 I had no idea. So it was just genetic. Maybe it could be for you too. Measure both your heads and check to see where you are on percentile chart.

My DH has a ridge at the back of his head and I had no idea it could be an issue! His head is quite big but not exceptionally so, it’s more that it’s kind of not round iyswim? You wouldn’t look at him and think anything of it, even now that he’s bald and it’s more noticeable.

I had the opposite - a child with a head on the 4th centile. First discovered on scans and then confirmed post birth. They initially called in the fetal medicine consultant who immediately dismissed it as a non-issue.

It looked normal though and whilst I also worried about her prominent ridges and that her skull had prematurely fused, it all turned out to be normal. You’d never look at her and think she had a small head.

I guess what I’m saying is that someone has to have the biggest head and someone the smallest. Definitely measure yours and your husbands. Turns out my head is pretty small too but I’d never really noticed.

Oakdog thank you so much. I suppose it happens to a lot of babies but I’m just so worried. At birth he had a brain scan as his two fontanelles were slightly larger than normal but after bloods were done and an extra night in hospital we were able to go home. Was supposed to go in end of July for a follow but was cancelled, then two appointments in august were cancelled! So we’re in on the 30th. I suppose I’m just whittling!! But thank you for your response x

MimiDaisy11 Thank you. This all sounds very reassuring. Thank you so much for responding. I will measure our heads haha, im pretty sure I have a massive head! X

JosephineDeBeauharnais Did anything come out of it? I have always noticed the ridge but never thought anything of it until recently x

Greytminds

Yes I completely get what you’re saying! Thank you for replying. X

@05cnorris at the 20 week scan, and then at about another 8, he'd had his ventricles measuring bigger (2mm bigger maybe) but they'd only just changed the parameters of this and a few months earlier it would have been in the normal range. That was what triggered the MRI coupled with the head size. Sorry I didn't mention this earlier but didn't realise about your DCs fontanelles measurements. Hope everything's OK, but it doesn't have to be 'anything' if you see what I mean

@Oakdog I’ve just learned how to reply to you. Thank you. I’m sure everything will be fine. I’m trying to be positive. He seems a very happy, healthy little boy x

My baby did have craniosynostosis and had surgery between 16 and 20 weeks (can't remember exactly) and is in a cranio helmet now and doing great. The surgery was minimally invasive, less than 2 hours. I am happy to answer questions if you have them!

@BookFiend4Life oh I’m glad to hear your child is doing well. Can I ask why they had surgery? What symptoms were there x

My ds was at the 50th centile at birth and hit the 99th within 6 weeks. He couldn't lift his head off a floor if lying face down at several months old (can't remember for the life of me when that was, but suffice to say that everyone else's dc were doing it!) At 2 he was in an medium adult bike helmet to ride his tricycle. He couldn't get most child size jumpers over his head...ever. He's an adult now and at 6' 4", is rather larger than the average bear, with a head to match. Good luck and hope all the checks go well.

Is his soft spot very firm or feel like it's bulging? If not I would not panic at this stage. My little one has hydrocephalus and the signs for this are rapid head growth (have you been measuring head circumference regularly to monitor growth against centile?), veiny forehead, bulging fontanelle etc

What I'm trying to say if doesn't matter if there head is genetically massive as long as it's following a steady growth trajectory rather than massive expansion.

@05cnorris

JosephineDeBeauharnais Did anything come out of it? I have always noticed the ridge but never thought anything of it until recently x

Nope, just quite a ridge. If he had a lot of hair you wouldn’t even know it was there.

So she had a sort of brow ridge, and her head looked "long" and skinnyish to me, also she had sort pinched looking temples. I had to be pretty proactive with our GP to get a referral to children's hospital. I did a bunch of googling about her head shape and effectively identified her condition (saggital craniosynostosis) before we even started seeing specialists. The craniosynostosis was not actually the main concern of the gp to begin, they thought she might have dwarfism because she was so tiny when she was born (she didn't, just a little baby) but either way it got us through the door and I had a laundry list of things we noticed as mentioned above. It took some time to get to the right department, it wasn't until our 3rd appointment that the Dr walked through the door and basically diagnosed her on sight. GPS can identify the condition by feeling babies heads sometimes 3

Sorry posted before I finished. When you go for the well baby checkup and they squeeze the baby's head they are checking to see if the soft spots have closed prematurely, if so they are a candidate for surgery to allow the brain to grow properly. In our case her skull plates had fused together too soon (likely started in utero) causing her head to grow more front to back than side to side. The surgery involved removing the fusion (basically a strip.of bone between the two plates) through two pretty small incisions (about 1-2 inches) so now her skull is like any other baby's of this age. She is in the cranio helmet about 21 hours a day until she is 1 year old. Please let me know if you have any other questions, I remember how scary it was to wonder and worry and wait for the next appointment. As others have said, it could also be nothing!!! Babies have weird heads. But if it is something, even if it seems scary, you can manage it and it won't be as bad as you think.

Just to add to Book's comments my DS was also born with the same condition and had surgery to 'correct' it ... this was 20 years ago and it has absolutely not affected his development in any way (now a Sports mad Uni student .) However it is quite a rare condition and not all health visitors/medical professionals will have seen it before so do press for a proper investigation. There is a very good charity called Headlines which can give you advice and information.