macrocephalic 21 month old with delayed speech/gross motor/low hemoglobin

[Katie]

My 21 month old son, was seen by our family phys. for a regular 18 mos check up at the beginning of Nov/2000.  His head size had increased by a large amount.  From the ninetyith percentile to off the chart.  We were referred to a paediatrician who reccomended a head CT.  He is also delayed in speech(babble only)and started walking at 20 months.  His fine motor skills have been assessed as normal.  He has been assessed with fluid in his ears and we are waiting for a follow up appt. with the ENT re: the possibility of tubes.  Initial hearing tests indicated mild hearing but a subsequent test 1 month later indicated normal(low end of normal) with fluid movement from canals.  I (mother) indicated to doctor 1 week ago, that i felt Matthew was pale.  He was suffering from chest infection, put on antibiotics for 10 days, and I was told to take him for bloodwork in 1 week if I felt his colour was still so pale.  We did the bloodwork last week.  His hemoglobin was 106, and I was directed to give 15 ml Fer in Sol /day for 2 months, then have his blood retested.  Prenatal history is a placenta praevia baby, 3 bleeds, crash C-section, vented for 3 days, pneumothorax at birth(RDS), no apparent brain bleeding upon discharge at 7 days old.  He was born 4.5 weeks premature at 5lbs 10 oz.  Our CT scan is not scheduled until March 27/01.  Funding in Canada being what it is today is really ticking me off but that is another topic.  My concern is....can all of this be related?  Can the large head be a sign of slow bleeds in the brain, is the low hemoglobin a possible indicator of this.  Can the fluid in the ears have something to do with the large head and the developmental delays, or is this just unrelated bad luck of one child getting everything.  We have 2 older children a girl(6) and another boy (4), with no problems.  Please help. Any thoughts on the situation would be appreciated
Sincerely
Katie

[kass]

Hi Katie  :-)

Completely understand your concern and hope there are some answers for you soon.

Try posting your message over at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation neurology forum at http://www.medhelp.org/perl6/neuro/wwwboard.html and the good doctors there should be able to give you some feedback on your son. Best time to try and post there is 8-9 am CST.

Best wishes,
Kass, proud mom to three amazing kiddo's  :-)

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Katie,

I wish I could address this range of medical concerns, but I am not qualified to do so. This Forum concentrates on childhood and adolescent behavioral concerns, not on medical conditions. Perhaps one of the readers of the Forum can suggest a site that could address your concerns.