head circumference, whats it all about?

[manc1]

My daughter is eleven months old with a head circumference of 41cm, she is not on any centile and we already have a diagnosis of c.p but have been told this is a sign of severe learning difficulties and developmental delay, she is not sitting up unaided and has regular physio and we have been told shes about 3-4 months behind. I seem to be freaking out about this and as she is our only child am preparing for the very worst. I have quite a small head but her size has not grown in months. Will this have a major bearing on the ultimate outcome or not?

bump for you

It can be a sign of microcephaly (which can go with learning difficulties). But it's a very inexact science so don't stress too much about it. The children I know with microcephaly have very small heads.

We were told that ds1 had an enormous head - in fact ds2's (not disabled) is larger and ds1's has become more in proportion as he's gown older.

They're right to keep an eye on it but try not stress too much

Its very subjective how they measure it. dd (now 4) has a diddy head too and the nuero we saw said she was 'microcephalic'
Got myself in a tizz, came on here and called Scope and they said many kids with CP have little heads. She's all in proprtion and at mainstream school last week i could see non-disabled children with smaller heads! She doesn't have learning difficulties either and her CP is severe - no sitting or rolling or hand function and no speach.

My little boy, 2.5 yrs, has a small head - not quite microcephalic (or maybe that's the way I measure lol), but small nevertheless due to the damage. His head size used to freak me out terribly because I'd read about learning difficulties etc. He has quad cp but seems really bright. There are older kids with cp and small heads at his school that are cognitively ok too, so nothing's definite. Please try to stay away from the internet looking up medical stuff, it'll make you ill. Have you joined specialkidsintheuk.org? It's a great forum with some very experienced parents. xx