My 1 year old boy was a preemie and is still catching up with height and weight. His height and weight are in the 10-15th percentile where his head circumfrence is in the 70th percentile. Originally my pediatrician said it is normal for the brain to grow first but is that still normal now? Should i be worried?
My son is two and his head is still in the 90% while his weight is usually around 50%. No need to worry, my doc says that some people just have bigger heads! MORE BRAIN CELLS FOR LATER!!! :)
Denise
I have twins who were born 6 weeks early. Their height/weight has usually been in 5-15% percentile but their heads well above ... and now in 90%+. But they have always followed their own curve... so as long as he continues to follow his own curve and your pediatrician is not alarmed, then I would say he is a-okay! :)
I wouldn't worry about it. My daughter was 6 lb 11 oz & her head of "off the chart" for the first 6 mos. After that, it was still in the 95th percentile. I hated those early visits b/c the nurses would always re-measure her head, assuming their first measurment was wrong.
She'll be 4 next week. She's finally "grown into" her head size. But, there are still some shirts that she refuses to wear (or has a near panic attack) b/c they are more difficult to pull over her noggin.
HI,
I don't know how preemie yours is but I have a former 24 weeker. He is now a healthy happy 6 year old. I am not telling you this story to freak you out. Your sons circumfrence sounds fine. When my little one was in the NICU he suffered a bleed to his brain, putting him at a very high risk for hydrocephalus. Unfortunately not one Dr told us this.
I was always concerned with his head. I was always checking his soft spot, always questioning the Dr's with his measurements, but didn't know why I was so obsessed. When he was 14 months old, he woke up in the morning projectile vomiting and was very sleepy and hard to wake. We brought him to the Peditrician and they sent us to the ER, where we had every test known to man peformed on him, except nobody looked at his head. We were in the ER for 6 hours and despite him getting IV after IV, he didn't get any better. He was still vomiting and lethargic. He was eventually diagnosed with "the flu", and we were sent to the peditric unit for observation. (thank God) we were not sent home.
After being in the ped unit for about 15 min, my son started convulsing, stroked out, and ended up in a coma. They determined that he had hydrocephalus and was suffering from extreme pressure on his brain.
As I said thankfully he is very healthy today and has minimal damage from the stroke. Looking back over the time prior to this happening I can't say there were red flags. His head was measured by our ped 1 month prior, and by his ped neurologist 2 weeks prior. Nothing concerned them for some reason. I do recall it wasn't the percentile that should have alerted them as much as the rate of growth. I think he went from like the 70th to the 90th in that 2 week period. The only other sign I had was he woke up one day when he was 1 bleeding out of his ear. The Dr's couldn't figure out why and thought maybe he had a sinus infection that caoused it, even though he had no symptoms of one.
I would say if you are having a nagging feeling for some reason about the size of his head, and the rate of his growth is fast, ask for a ct scan of his head. That simple ex-ray would have spared my son big time. I try real hard these days not to ignore my mommy intuition. Just keep a close eye on him especially if he did suffer a bleed, and be proactive. Best of luck, H..
Hi!
My son's head has always been much larger than his height/weight; he also seems with it so I don't mind :) The doctor said that calories for growth first go to the brain, then the length and then the weight! My son will be two in October and continues a similar trend though the percentiles are going more together-
Hope that helps.
T.
Dont worry too much. I had a preemie too and his head was in the 90-95th percent while the rest was in the 50th and they just kept measuring to make sure it eventually leveled off.
He's fine. Got a big mellon, but fine.
Absolutely... Both of my boys were born early and had "big heads". Right around 2 years old, their bodies caught up with the head. That's they only way that I could put it. The hardest thing with us, was clothes. The clothes would completely fit them, but I couldn't get certain things over their heads.. So from this point forward, watch the head openings on all tops if you are not already experiencing this issue. NO worries mama, he'll catch up.
My son wasn't a premie but he was small when he was born only two weeks early 5.4 lbs. His head has always been bigger than the average size but his height and weight are always a little off. I've never really considered it a problem or something to worry about. We are all built differently in some way. As long as his head is not mis shaped you should have nothing to worry about. My neice does have a mis shaped head and should have worn a helmet for most of her first years of her life but since she didn't she will have problems with her teeth and her eyes for the rest of her life. As long as the doctor doesn't feel that is a concern (he hasn't mention that or you would remember and would have posted that) your son is just fine. You'll just have to do like me and by him bigger hats than the other kids his age. He'll be fine.
Yes, totally normal. Since birth my daughter has been in the 95th% for her head circumfrence, she is now 2 1/2 (will be 3 in Oct.). She looks "normal" though...nobody has ever commented on her "big head". :) I wouldn't worry about it. If it starts to get larger and larger and not stop growing, then that would be reason for concern...hydrocephaly and stuff like that. But sounds to me like he's right on track and no need to worry.
While this may not be medically or experience based, my good friend had a son who had a huge head until he was about 3-4 years old. People would stop her and comment on how large it was compared to his skinny little body! But, now he is 11 years old and smart as can be... and his body finally caught up to his head size! I'm sure your little guy will grow out of it soon enough!
I agree with everyone, my daughters head was huge 13 3/4. Getting turtlenecks over her head, forget it. But they're bodies do catch up with it. No need to worry.
It's still normal if it has been gradual with the growth curve. My boys have big heads, as does my husband though. My 1st son was born 5 weeks early, so when they started telling me percentiles at 2 or 4 months, he started out being the 5th percentile for weight, 25th percentile for height and 99th percentile (just above the line on the growth curve chart) for head circumfrance. So pretty drastically big head for his size. He gradually caught up with height and weight. He's now 3 years old and the 25th percentile for weight, 75th percentile for height, and still top of the chart for head size. Every checkup the doctor would kinda laugh and say his head is big, but always has been so it's norml. :) As long as there's no big jump in the chart, a big head is just fine. :)
My son just turned one in the end of July. Since his first check-up, his head circumference was always much larger than the rest of his measurements. His one year check up showed 50% for height and weight and 90% for head - my doctor, who I am very happy with showed no sign of concern.
