Q: My 14 months old son was born premature two months before the due date. The doctor is concerned that his head size is growing at a fast rate. His head circumference was 37 cm at two months and now it is 49 cm. My husband also has a big head i.e. 58 cm and his family tells me that he always had big head as a baby too. The doctor advised to get a CT scan done to rule out the presence of a tumour. But we have not done it yet. He has reached his developmental milestones in time. He walks with support, climbs stairs, says few words like aai, baba, didi. Is a big head size a genetic problem?

A:His head size is within upper limit of normal. If he is developmentally fine, most likely it should be fine. However, if the rate of increase in last few days is more than expected there is no harm in doing either a head ultrasound or MRI and get this worry out of your system. Normal imaging will be reassuring and you would stop thinking about this. MRI and ultrasound are safe and there is no risk of exposure to radiation. Also check with your pediatrician if there are any signs of Vitamin D deficiency which may cause bossing of some parts of skull and head may appear bigger.