ONE YEAR CHECK UP
Vanessa made a trip to visit her pediatrician this week to check up on him. He was pleased to see her, as usual. She sat very still as he used his toy (stethescope) to listen to her heart and lungs, and she gave him a giant yeowl so he could examine the back of her throat. Van is cooperative that way. Then she got three more shots and that was that.
It turns out that Vanners finally grew in length. Thank God! You see, she had only gained 1/2 inch in length between her 6- and 9-month appointments, a time when most babies grow 3 times that. Our baby daughter was wearing 18-24 month onesies but only 9 month old pants, leading me to be concerned she might grow up to be a gecko.
At that 9-month appointment she had dropped down to the 70th percentile for length. I wondered what I was doing wrong all of a sudden. Sure enough, at the 12 month mark Van is back up to the 93rd percentile at a length (height) of 31.125 inches. She weighs 24 lbs. 4 oz. which is the 94th percentile for weight.
I've stopped being concerned about her monsterous noggin. This appointment, Vanessa's head circumerference is 49.5 cm which is nearly average for a four year old. Yup. Big ole head. She's something like five standard deviations above the norm in head circumference. Um... that's a lot.
Now I know that Auntie Anne is reading this and wondering, "Is her pediatrician concerned?" The answer is no, he is not. Vanners has been off the chart for head circumference since the beginning, and, since the beginning, he thinks it's okay.
"She's smart," he mentioned. "She is aware of every single thing going on," he added. Oh yes: nothing new there.
I have read more on baby head circumference than you can imagine is out there to be read. That happens when you find our your child is in, say, the 150th percentile of something.
Big heads run in families, just as small head do. There are big and small heads on both sides of the family, and a few planetoid craniums, even. So heredity is one factor for wee VanNesserkins.
When a baby is born with a small head that seems to explode with growth in the first year, there can be a concern for autism. This is well documented for babies under 24 months. Here is information on head circumference and autism, from researchers at UCSD:
It was found that the head size of the autistic children at birth was, on average, in the 25th percentile, meaning that the circumference measurement for these children was smaller than 75 percent of other newborns. During the first year of life, however, these same children experienced sudden, rapid and excessive brain growth, that put them in the 85th percentile at about 12- to 14-months of age. From then on, the brain growth slowed. "This burst of overgrowth takes place in a brief period of time, between about two months and six to 14 months of age," Courchesne said. "So, we know it cannot be caused by events that occur later, such as vaccinations for mumps, measles and rubella or exposure to toxins during childhood."
Never have we been concerned Vanessa has autism. Not for a minute.
Vanessa is just fine. Especially considering how her mother started life. Heck, I had a horrible lisp, pigeon toes that required leg braces, an attention issue that warranted formal hearing tests, and I rocked on all fours every night until age 12. Funny, back then my parents thought nothing of it - probably never even heard of autism. And oh yeah, I was a portly 30 lbs. at 12 months.
(This snapshot was tucked away in my late Uncle Jack's 2x3 inch brag book spanning 20 years. I had to crop and enlarge, since the cake and six rootbeer floats are in the foreground. In fact, I think the photo is really of the cake and rootbeer floats, and that baby Mary is lucky to be in the shot at all. There are two other known photographs of me under the age of 1.)
Jack, on the other hand, was walking at 11 months and riding a tricycle at 18 months. He weighed 26 lbs. on his first birthday. In comparison, Nanners is leaner but on par with her Daddy's physical gifts. (Just today the parents at the park remarked at what a nimble climber Van is at the tender age 12 months. Well hello: get a load of her monkey toes.)
(Here is Daddio (and Granny Ernestine and Auntie Kathy) on his very first birthday onboard the Queen Fredrika, en route to Africa with the family. That's the ship's Captain serving him. This photo was taken and hand-developed by Jack's father and lovingly showcased in Jack's "This is Your Life" 40th birthday photo album. It's an 8x10. There are several other shots in his baby book as well.)
There is a new study out on head circumference and intelligence, from researchers across the pond. Gee whiz, I'd much prefer to believe our 150th percentile, monster-headed baby is healthy. Wouldn't you?
PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 4 October 2006, pp. 1486-1492 (doi:10.1542/peds.2005-2629)
In a recent study, higher IQ scores at the age of 9 years were associated with increased head growth both in the first 9 months of life and between 9 months and 9 years of age, regardless of head size at the start of these periods, but detailed information on growth after 9 months of age was not available. Results from some small studies of very low birth weight infants have indicated that the critical period for catch-up brain growth, in terms of later intelligence, may be confined to the first 1 year of life. Our findings provide additional evidence that infancy is the most important period of postnatal brain growth for determining later intelligence. Brain growth after infancy, at least in terms of brain volume, is unlikely to compensate for poor growth in the first year of life.
Here is the link to the whole article, if you're curious...
I have to say, it's confusing. So is head growth healthy or a sign of a problem? Hmmmm. Eeny, meeny, miny moe... I choose "supreme health" in Vanners' case. Heck, she's been supremely healthy through all the odds to date, why should she switch up now?
We aren't sure how to grow a big brain intentionally. Maybe Vanessa knows.
But wait one minute: Vanessa's head circumference is technically average for her age. She is, afterall, 4 years old.
P.S. Grandma Patty arrived from Vermont and every time she laughs, Vanny laughs, too. Some of these photos were taken by Grandma on her new digital camera.
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