Short femur I’m spiralling

[Joleyjojo]

Hi

I have had 3 mc in 12 months before getting pregnant. One was due to trisomy 18.

i am gestational diabetic on insulin 4 x a day.

I went for 20 week scan EFW is on 15% head 28% Tummy 47% and Femur 6%

they want me to have a scan with fetal med in 2 weeks. I have completely spiralled googling and so scared something is wrong with my baby or the placenta isn’t working due to diabetes.

has anyone been in this position. I keep reading about DS and dwarfism.

im older at 40 and just think the worst xxx

They measured my daughter's baby as having short femurs , and a massive head. His legs are perfectly normal and he's on the 98th centile height wise.

So sorry to hear thie. Given medical history it is understandable to be concerned. Not had that exact situation. But with DS1 he had a smaller abdomen they said on the 3rd centile and tried to get me to do an induction early. I had no health issues and placenta working fine and amniotic fluid fine and baby was happy and moving.
Had my birth as I wanted and my DS1 still has a small tummy just like his father but has daddy long legs. Just how he is built. I have to always put elastic in his trousers as they fall down but always to short length wise.

It could be nothing. But best to prepare for any outcome and know whatever the outcome they will look after you.
If you are eating well and controlling the diabetes as best as you can there is nothing more you can do.

I had this with my DD. Her femur was always about 5th centile and the rest was about 50th centile. I had further scans with fetal medicine and at those one they also measure radius, ulna etc. they are pretty in depth and I had them throughout my whole pregnancy, every 2 weeks. Turned out my DD is just petite. Even now she is tiny compared to her peers but in proportion (which they will check at scans). They can usually tell if it is dwarfism from skull shape, and how the leg bones are growing I.e if they are straight or bowed (sign of dwarfism). They also do something called foot to femur ratio and can tell from that if there is a problem or they are just petite but in proportion.
Please send me a message if you want to talk as I know how worrying it can be.

Thank you for your reply. I’m really letting the worst case scenario take over and stopped enjoying being pregnant. I’m just so scared. I have been googling and most of the stories seem to be positive which is really not like Google 😂. Baby is measuring pretty small all over so maybe baby is just small. I just feel sick with worry x

Thanks for your reply.
glad to hear your boy was ok.
I just can’t help but worry I’m hoping baby is just a small baby. My diabetes is 80% controlled with the occasional spike. I haven’t really eaten too much over the pregnancy and made myself convinced that’s one of the reasons. I was overweight at conception BMI 32 but lost weight because eating absolutely no rubbish sugar etc. so I don’t know if it’s something to do with that. Who knows x

Thanks for the reply. That’s reassuring. Do you know what percentile he was on? And did they always measure short ? Xxx

I was told throughout my pregnancy that my baby was huge, her head was enormous, and so on. Had so many scans.

Baby was 8lb and just has a big head. Nothing wrong with her at all!

Definitely take scan measurements with a pinch of salt (obviously go for any follow ups of course). I had a few extra scans in pregnancy and some measurements really varied. At one point the femur measurement was 50th, then 20th (I panicked a bit about the drop) then about 50th again. Bearing in mind the other measurements were all in the 70th/80th+. I thought he'd end up having quite short legs. Now at 7 weeks old he appears to have long legs, measuring on the 91st percentile for length and just about grown out of 0-3 month clothes due to leg length (rather than body).

Take the measurements with a pinch of salt. I had lots of scans and they always jumped around a bit. And despite the fact that my obstetrician was excellent and also had a fetal medicine specialty he still told me I was having a 6lb-er and he popped at over 8lbs and none of the newborn clothes fit so DH had to go home for the 0-3 months.

My dd was small head and femur, she like her dsis had a two vessel cord and were born small for term (and no other factors) both normal adults now though dd is 5’2

Ds had a ridiculously big head (99th centile) on his growth scans, and small femurs (forget the centile but definitely <15th).

He is indeed a short kid with a big head, but beyond needing to size up for hats, he is an entirely normal child. He’s 25-50th centile for height. Normal proportions.

Awww it is so inderstandable.
Soem.thing i discovered much later but having low Vit D in oregnancy has been shown to affect growth. Is that somwthing you can ask to be tested. They should do it no worries. Ny 2nd oregnancy I took high dose Vit D 1200 IU and 2nd DS was 8pbs and 75th centile. Also my iron was never monitored in my first oregnancy and I was anemic and research has said that can contribute to low birth weight. Have rhey checked iron?
My BMI was 30.5 with DS1 and 31 with DS2. And DS1 was 6lbs and DS2 was 8lbs.
All the best eith the remainder of the pregnancy. Your baby may just be petite.

DS1 measured small on the abdomen from 32 weeks he remained in the 5th centile and last scan at 38w he was 4th and they kept hassling me for induction. The funny thing is at booking aot they said as my BNI is high I was going to have a huge baby was the opposite. I knew he was fine so told them to leave me alone and signed consent form that I refused induction and medical advice. He was born naturally and healthy with no complications and had a pool birth at the midwife led unit.

At 20 weeks My daughter was around 40% for tummy and 50% head, but 8% femur.
28 week scan femur was 3% and then 32 week scan at sub 1%.
They mucked up / lost fetal medicine referral so saw no one til 34 weeks. It was v stressful and very worrying. I googled (as you do) and mind went everywhere. I was also older mum.

I was offered amnio but decided that ship had sailed as would have been 35/36 weeks, and didn’t want to risk labour. Consultant did note I am short and short legged and so didn’t push it.

She was ultimately born at 39 weeks and looked fine. She has continued just to be perfectly fine and petite kid, perfectly in proportion and quite athletic.

subsequently I have spoken to a lot of people who have had the short femur panic and it’s been fine. Obviously some people are ok wrong end of the stats, but don’t assume worst. It’s a soft marker worth checking, not a diagnosis.

Try to keep calm (easier said than done) and go see fetal medicine. Best of luck xxx

In my trust those measurements wouldn't be referred to Fetal Medicine. Only an individual measurement of the 3rd gentile all below. Im not sure if that gives you some reassurance?

Exactly the same situation for my DD. And to be fair, I’ve realised since that I actually have similar proportions so she probably gets it from me.

OP, I feel for you as I also spiralled when I saw the measurements and was googling everything but there’s a strong chance it will all be completely fine. Thinking of you and hope you’re ok.

I had this with my girl and had to keep having growth scans. She didn’t come out as small as they said. I am petite though so it could just be she takes after me