College of Medicine at … Hopefully tips like these will shape up any concerns you have about your baby’s flat head shape. From birth to 3 months of age the average increase in your baby's head circumference is usually 2 cm or .78 inches each month. Normally, the head is about 1/3 longer than it is wide and rounded at the back. With vaginal birth specifically, a baby’s skull shape initially tells parents little beyond how cozy mom’s birth canal was. As kids age, that changes. Depending on which bones fused, the baby may develop an abnormal head shape. Macrocephaly means big head, and it is the name for a condition in which an infant or child has an abnormally large head size. ... there is no need to worry. If your baby prefers one side of the back of his or her head to the other, the skull can take on an asymmetrical, lopsided shape. There are times when a sonographer might notice something about your baby's head shape while your baby is still in the womb. The doctor also will look for any problems with the shape of the baby’s face. ... hours a day. If most of the flattening is in the back of his head, it may be covered by hair and barely noticeable. Slow growth or no growth in the baby’s head size over time; Doctors can identify craniosynostosis during a physical exam. This is known as positional plagiocephaly. A doctor will feel the baby’s head for hard edges along the sutures and unusual soft spots. The website Infant Head Circumference Chart offers an online growth chart calculator that shows how your baby's head circumference compares to other babies. A child’s head shape when they first enter the world — oblong and vaguely alien — may be jarring, but it’s normal and no cause for concern. Your doctor can likely diagnose this condition soon after your baby is born, as it will become noticeable fairly quickly. Parents spend so much time with their baby, recognizing an abnormal head shape can sometimes be difficult. We’ve found it can be helpful to see examples of a normal head shape before looking at abnormal ones. Because your baby's skull is malleable, however, a tendency to rest the head in the same position can result in an uneven head shape well past the time when birth-related lopsidedness evens out. From 4 to 6 months of age, the head circumference or head growth slows to about 1 cm per month. Size and shape: At birth, your baby’s head has an average circumference of 13.8 inches and makes up about a quarter of the length of her body (imagine that ratio on a grown-up!). For example, if your baby's head size receives a percentile value of 60, this indicates that your baby's head circumference is greater than 60 out of 100 babies. Lewis First, MD, is chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Robert Larner, M.D. One should remember that the bay’s head grows rapidly in the first few years of life. 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