Child low head circumference

[Apotheosis]

Hello! I just had my second child about 2 months ago and she falls into the 20th percentile for head circumference and I am slightly concerned for her. Our first was born in the 90-95th percentile and is extremely intelligent, but life was very stressful during the pregnancy.

There are a few factors we think could have led to this.
-exposure to cmv at around the time that our daughter was conceived. She is fully formed and does not have hearing issues. The doctors said if it has truly overlapped she would have died, but it is correlated to low head circumference
-extremely high cortisol levels during pregnancy. Our first got very sick (with cmv and fifths disease, simultaneously) and ran a high fever for 2 months. This led to us moving, which was more stress.
- my wife got very sick at about 5 months pregnant, the sickest she had ever been.

I was hoping someone here could recommend things we could do to encourage head growth. She isn't in microcephaly territory but we are concerned. She is exclusively breastfed.

Thank you all for your time.

 

[Beatrix_]

I know of a similar case. The child is 7 yo today and very smart. Her head reached normal size by the time she was about 7-8 mo. The parents didn't have to do anything special. Breast feeding and food introduction around 6 mo as recommended by a standard pediatrician. Wishing you and your family all the best.

 

[Apotheosis]

Thank you very much, that is extremely reassuring. My wife is beginning to supplement with k2 as well.

 

[Beatrix_]

I asked the father about the timing and he just got back to me. At 2 mo the circumference reached normal average and at 4 mo it was already above average, so the improvement can be expected to be faster. The family was so concerned, and then it was a relief that it had such a fast resolution.

I believe the mother should have the best diet possible while breast feeding, evidently. As for K2 supplementation, in my personal experience it raised my PTH to undesirable levels, which quickly normalized by adding vit D, magnesium and collagen. I know nothing about mother/baby nutrition, so I couldn't comment on anything beyond my own experience.

 

[mostlylurking]

Hello! I just had my second child about 2 months ago and she falls into the 20th percentile for head circumference and I am slightly concerned for her. Our first was born in the 90-95th percentile and is extremely intelligent, but life was very stressful during the pregnancy.

There are a few factors we think could have led to this.
-exposure to cmv at around the time that our daughter was conceived. She is fully formed and does not have hearing issues. The doctors said if it has truly overlapped she would have died, but it is correlated to low head circumference
-extremely high cortisol levels during pregnancy. Our first got very sick (with cmv and fifths disease, simultaneously) and ran a high fever for 2 months. This led to us moving, which was more stress.
- my wife got very sick at about 5 months pregnant, the sickest she had ever been.

I was hoping someone here could recommend things we could do to encourage head growth. She isn't in microcephaly territory but we are concerned. She is exclusively breastfed.

Thank you all for your time.

Perhaps you might find the audios about progesterone of interest.

• Politics & Science: Progesterone Part 1
• Politics & Science: Progesterone Part 2
• Politics & Science: Progesterone Part 3

 

[Apotheosis]

Thank you very much! On the plus side, my wife used an actual tape measure rather than the janky way I was measuring (that doesn't explain what the nurse came up with, but they see to be bad at measurements in general) and the head came out to effectively the 62nd percentile, so I am far less worried! I really appreciate the feedback from you both, and will certainly listen to those audios