Short long bones and accuracy of Ultrasound

[Expecti]

I expect this topic has been discussed lots of times but I was wondering whether anyone has been in the position where they have commissioned private ultrasounds during pregnancy and found significantly different results to the NHS?
We are currently very anxious after being told that our little one (25 weeks at present) had very short 'long' bones. We had panorama at 9 weeks which came up clear (low prob of anything) but really don't fancy doing an amnio.
After the 20 week growth scan which prompted referral to foetal medicine we paid for two very expensive private scans which were done by a foetal doctor. The results agreed that he was small but the overall measurements were much larger across both time points compared ti NHS (for example <1st% vs 10th!). No other issues were found either by NHS or private but we are continuing to attend lots of NHS appointments. Each time we have the same conversations about his low estimated weight and short limbs abd it's so stressful.
We have gone from calm to a state of high anxiety since the 20 week anomaly scan which kicked all this off.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I would be really interested if anyone would be willing to share their experiences?

We had extended panel panorama at 9 weeks and all came back clear. Baby has had a head >99th centile so like yourself we have paid for private ultrasounds to check the anatomy/double check measurements. The measurements have always come out similar although the private scans found all of him to be larger than the NHS scans.
Are they suggesting any further tests other than amnio?

Kind of, we have more scans and one to look at heart rate/ movements correlations (if I have understood correctly). I feel like we have maximised the potential of scans now, they haven't seen anything else, bone density etc ok. Possibly a slowing of growth over the last 4 weeks but I'm not clear about how linear growth is anyway? (Or how accurate the equipment is?) I's mainly just repeat growth (unless we agree to an amino). All a lot of stress!
Do you mind me asking how far along you are? Did you get any clarity with your baby?

I'm due this week so I will hopefully be able to give more clarity at the end of the week but so far they just think he's constitutionally massive rather than anything in particular.
I can imagine the stress you're under, and the repeated growth scans can be frustrating. My other two babies were growth restricted and so we had two weekly growth scans before delivering a bit early for both, we never got answers on that either (they started around 50th centile and dropped to about 10th both times), they were born small, and are both now 50th centile.
Are you or your husband particularly short? I think skeletal dysplasias are only considered with <3rd centile limbs and hopefully the private scans of 10th can be reassuring.

I had this from 28 weeks, NHS found short legs and arms at my growth scan. I had to have scans every two weeks and honestly I was petrified. In my case my baby had a top centile head and abdomen, and an under 5th centile femur measurement. An FMU dr with the NHS measured him at just over 5th centile at one of these scans, but the sonographers all measured him slightly smaller. So it can vary with who measured also, and FMU apparently had better quality scanning machines in my hospital.

In my case my baby was born and his legs and arms were fine. He is not small either - at one year old he's around 70th centile for weight and height. I think for me it was some asymmetrical growth restriction. I had a thread at the time and lots of people had posted similarly reassuring experiences

Hello! Any updates on you and your LO? 💙🙏🏻 hope all
Went well, i am going thru the same as well x

Hi, any update currently going through same thing

Hi

He's 18 months old now, tiny (0.1st centile) but absolutely fine and in proportion. We went to lots of specialists and this caused us a lot of stress. His arms and legs are totally in proportion to the rest of him (very small) but he is developing normally, meeting his milestones. My advice, let them do the standard screening, maybe pay for a NIPT if you are worried but then try to put it out of your head. This stuff is 80% guesswork and people involved tend be be bad at guessing. So many people seem to go through this stuff.
Everything will be ok

Thanks for your telly it's reassuring! I had panorama at beginning and all came back low risk, have amniocentesis on Tuesday after another growth scan. It's just torture waiting all I think of all day everyday