Head circunference

Cephical perimeter, knows its values ​​and its importance. The name may seem complicated at first glance, but the cephalic perimeter is something very simple and what needs to be calculated to know how the baby's health is. In this text, we talk to you more about it.

What is the head circumference?

The cephalic perimeter is a little complicated name, but it means measuring the size of the baby's head. The doctor does it with a tape measure of the normal ones that everyone has at home.

Just pass it around the entire circumference of the child's head to find out if the size is ideal for that age.

With this measure, you can understand the brain development of the child, for example, as well as other important issues that will guide the work of the pediatrician and other specialists from there.

However, those who make these types of measures must be experts in the area, so as not to give false information.

Normally, people worry about size, weight, balance of body measurements, but the part of the head is very important and makes a difference in recognizing the health of the baby.

What is the cephalic perimeter test for?

This test is done by the doctor each time you take the child to a consultation. That's because you need to know how the baby's brain develops and one of the most efficient ways to have those numbers is by measuring the perimeter of the head.

With that, the test is essential to know if the child's head grows normally, more or less than it should.

So the doctor can determine if everything is fine with brain health, the nervous and cognitive system or if he has a problem in that area.

Children have a very high brain development in the first months. To have an idea, in the first four months the head of the baby grows half of what will grow until it reaches one year.

This leaves many parents afraid of this growth too quickly, but they need not worry. The consultation to the pediatrician or his periodic controls, will be key for the control of growth.

How important is the head circumference?

The importance of knowing the real value of the cephalic perimeter is to avoid and treat diseases and health problems that may occur with the baby in the first months of life. An example that, unfortunately, has become common in recent years is microcephaly and hydrocephalus.

These two diseases cause changes in the size of the child's head in the first months after birth.

Doing these exams, follow the brain development and seek with other techniques the answers and treatments are essential for the child to grow up healthy and can have a normal life, even with a problem that can last all his life.

In addition to these slightly more complicated issues, the measurement of the child's head can also detect more common changes, which do not generate as much concern.

So if you see that there is some difference of what it should be, do not worry.

The doctor is the one who will do the correct tests to diagnose effectively what happens to the child. There is no risk of death unless it is a genetic condition, but medical control is the key so that nothing risky happens.

And what is the correct size of the child's head?

Everything must be analyzed by the expert, because he has the notion of the size of the child's head at birth, how much you need to grow in a certain period and other data that only the baby's own doctor has.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has an average calculation that uses as a basis to know if everything is healthy with the baby.

They are the data used by doctors to know if everything is fine. Only, obviously, he also uses his own experience and the contact he has with the child to make sure that head size really matches the child's natural development.

An important detail is that there are already studies that prove the relationship of exclusive breastfeeding until six months of gestation with the natural development of the child's head circumference.

That is, it has been shown that babies who only take breast milk are much healthier than those who are fed formula milk or other types of milk.