Rapid Brain Growth- Head Size poll - Autism Spectrum Message Board

phow · 07-22-2003, 12:29 AM

How about we do our own poll on head size & autism?

According to the study pubished in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the average headsize of autistic children was in the 25th percentile at birth but increased rapidly to put their average in the 86th percentile by the age of one.

I don't recall my daughter going through a rapid expansion of her head size in her first year.

Did your kids?

Nicksmom · 07-22-2003, 10:14 AM

I don't know exactly what percentile my son came in at, however, the place that stores medical records in my city was going out of business and they where going to distroy all our records within a year if they where unclaimed......so I have the originals in front of me. I remember the doctor measuring his head at all the visits and just saying he's in the normal range. According to his records, his head cm at a month old was 37 and his head cm was 48 at 12 months old. I found the normal ranges on line so you can see that therory doesn't add up in my son's case.

All lengths are in cms and refer to circumference around the widest point. I have included the average and the range in brackets.
Birth: 35cm (33-37)
1month: 36.5cm (33.5 - 40)
2mth: 38cm (35 -41)
6mth: 42cm (40-45)
9mth: 44cm (41-46.5)
12mth: 45.5cm (43-48)
18mth: 47cm (44-49)
2yrs: 47.5cm (45-50)
2.5yr: 48cm (45.5-51)
3yr: 48.5cm (46 - 52)

Nicksmom · 07-22-2003, 10:15 AM

.

[This message has been edited by Nicksmom (edited 07-22-2003).]

kiki lou · 07-22-2003, 11:16 AM

Mine was at 95th percentile at birth, was down to 90th at age 1 or so. So, nope, that theory is BS, in my opinion.

DScottK · 08-09-2003, 07:43 PM

Hello. My son is nine months old and this story scared me when it first came out. He has a very large head (ninety-something percentile). Although his head was never small to begin with, it is a concern. What are some other signs I should be looking for?