The big head with which the baby is bornimpresses with its size. In a full-term baby, it accounts for ¼ of the whole body, for a premature - about a third, and for an adult - only one-eighth. Such a big head in a child is due to the predominant development of his brain.
Children can be born with a different head shape,whereas its dimensions are generally accepted norms: in full-term girls, the head circumference is on average 34 cm, and in boys it is almost 35. In healthy newborns, the brain skull is larger than the facial, since the bones are still not accrete. Gradually, they grow together and form seams, and the undeveloped soft areas are called springs.
But sometimes it happens that children are born withabnormally enlarged head, which is also often asymmetric. At the same time, the frontal bumps appear prominently, and the eyeballs are enlarged and bulged out. Such symptoms speak of a dangerous disease - hydrocephalus.
What is hydrocephalus?
This is a disease caused by the accumulation of fluid inthe brain of a child. This disease is popularly called dropsy of the brain. As a rule, this disease is caused by an infectious disease that the mother suffered during pregnancy. Also, the disease can occur as a result of postponed meningitis, intoxication or a head injury. The consequence of these troubles in a child due to illness may be a big head. The disease also leads to an increase in pressure inside the skull, to neurological disorders, the appearance of convulsions and a decrease in vision and intellectual abilities.
Big head, of course, is notone hundred percent indicator of hydrocephalus. For example, if one of the parents of the child also has a big head, this indicates normal heredity. The main symptom of hydrocephalus in a baby is a big head, that is, its accelerated growth. Therefore, if such changes are observed, it is necessary to conduct an urgent examination, the results of which confirm or deny the diagnosis.
Signs of hydrocephalus
The first signs of the disease - increasedA spring that does not close by the age of three. Norma - by the year. The bones become thinner, the forehead becomes disproportionate, huge, with a well viewed venous mesh. There is a symptom of Graefe (upper eyelid lags behind when the eyeball moves down). Due to the disease, the baby lags behind in psychomotor development, cannot hold its head, does not get up and does not play. If, nevertheless, the diagnosis is confirmed, then the sooner qualified treatment begins, the fewer consequences will be in the future. Usually, hydrocephalus is treated surgically, during which surgeons remove liquor from the ventricles of the brain to other cavities of the body.
Microcephaly
Another serious deviation in the development of the child -this is microcephaly. With this disease, the baby also has a big head. But its circumference is only 25 cm, without springs. The facial part of the skull is much more cerebral, since the abnormality lies in the reduction of the size of the brain. Like hydrocephalus, this disease can develop before the birth of a child, as a result of an abnormal development of the baby inside the womb.
