Macrosomia?

[2boyzmama]

I've always had big-headed kids, I call them "Charlie Brown babies", so it didn't surprise me when Gavin's head was big. But, between his 6 and 9 month well baby checks, it grew even bigger. It's now above the 97% (although not far above), having jumped from just below the 75% at 6 months.

The dr isn't concerned yet, but did mention it, and wants us to bring him back in a month for another head measurement to make sure it isn't jumping any more. I trust this dr, he's not an alarmist, but also not passive. He has a low threshold for referrals, but will do things like extra measurements or research first.

So normally I wouldn't be worrying right now. And I guess I'm not, but I'm just a bit on edge. Gavin also is close to having a gross motor delay. He is 9 months old, sits really well, pivots purposefully when sitting, can lean forward to almost a crawling position and back to sitting again. Can bear weight when holding our hands. But does not crawl (in any fashion), does not pull up, does not stand when holding furniture or anything. He hardly rolls (will roll to get off his tummy, and will roll side to side when on his back, but almost never rolls from back to tummy. He can, he just doesn't) When he's on his tummy, he has good head control, does mini push ups, and does push himself backwards, crying/fussing/protesting the whole time. He does sort of do a butt-scoot, he can move across a room in a sitting position, I'm not quite sure how he does it because it's so slow/gradual. It's more like he migrates, not really intentful, you know?

So anyway...he's way behind where Ian was, and even behind Connor in some ways (Connor started semi-crawling at 9 months). I have no concerns about his fine motor skills, verbal skills, eating, or social (although he is somewhat shy/introverted, which is new to me!). It's just gross motor.

I'm not hugely concerned, but is the combination of big head (with a recent jump in percentiles) coupled with a bit of a lag in gross motor skills something to watch? Is it appropriate to wait a month and re-measure his head? My gut right now says that it's okay, but I just want to get a gut-check

[Missie]

is he doing all of this?

I have no concerns about his fine motor skills, verbal skills, eating, or social (although he is somewhat shy/introverted, which is new to me!). It's just gross motor.

if he is I would just work with him and make a game of it. if he is concentrating on the fine motor skills maybe he isn't giving himself the time to concentrate on the large is what I am thinking.

all kids develop at their own rate, my youngest was slow to start with the crawling and walking, he will be 16 months in 2 days and has only been walking maybe 2 months.

were you concerned about his head size before the doctor mentioned it? if not, continue with that. you see your baby every day and the doctor hasn't seen him in 3 months.. you know way more about your particular baby than the doctor does.

[2boyzmama]

Originally Posted by Missie

is he doing all of this?

I have no concerns about his fine motor skills, verbal skills, eating, or social (although he is somewhat shy/introverted, which is new to me!). It's just gross motor.

if he is I would just work with him and make a game of it. if he is concentrating on the fine motor skills maybe he isn't giving himself the time to concentrate on the large is what I am thinking.

all kids develop at their own rate, my youngest was slow to start with the crawling and walking, he will be 16 months in 2 days and has only been walking maybe 2 months.

were you concerned about his head size before the doctor mentioned it? if not, continue with that. you see your baby every day and the doctor hasn't seen him in 3 months.. you know way more about your particular baby than the doctor does.

I wasn't concerned about his head, like I said, all of my babies have had big heads. I knew it was big, but without measuring it, hadn't realized that it was growing at a faster rate than before. The head size alone doesn't worry me.

His development, while slower than Ian's (my "typical" child) wasn't concerning me *too* much. I was just starting to wonder why he seems to be doing less, why he doesn't seem interested in moving. But he has had a big jump in fine motor, eating, and sleeping recently. He has a great pincer grasp (better than my 3 year old's, although he's in occupational therapy for that delay!), and he went from being just so-so about foods to really wanting to eat a variety of tastes and textures. And his sleep went from non-predictable, to a fairly consistent 6 hour stretch.

So taken individually, neither worries me much. But the combination...

[LynnS6]

I'm sure you know this but motor control develops from the head down. If a child's head is somewhat large in proportion to their body, their motor skills will be on the slower side of typical. Crawling develops usually from reaching for things, so if he's sitting and reaching, he'll get there.

Right now, everything you've said doesn't raise a red flag for me. Maybe it's because the kids in our family don't sit or crawl until quite late -- ds sat at 9 months, dd at 8. Ds crawled at 10 1/2 months and walked at 13 months. The progress was amazing. He went from crawling to pulling himself up in a matter of 3 weeks. The range of typical for walking and crawling is so variable. So you never know. Dd walked at 13 months, despite sitting earlier. My SIL walked at 16. My brother walked at 15 months. (He spent the previous month practicing falling down.)

Look around at your family. Anybody with a big head? My dh's cousins have huge heads. So do their kids. Big and kind of square.