Short femur -stupid question

[Sonia1992]

Hi,
I'm 32weeks pregnant. My babygirl has been always smaller, my gyn suspected iugr in one moment, because her weigt was under 10%. But now suddenly she started to grow again and her weight is good. She has always had small head, belly, but her femurs were always the most behind and i was scared because i read that this is marker of down syndrome ( my gyn wasn't concerned because he told me that my baby is overally small, not just small femur). So her femurs were too short beetwen week 20 and 30, but now they have caught up and they are in 25%. Do you think it is still consider a marker if they caught up or not? I know, this is really stupid question but i freaked out about short femur and now i don't know if it matter that they caught up and i should be calm at the moment. Sorry for my english, i'm from Poland.

 

[LoraLoo]

Babies come in all shapes and sizes, i would not worry. On my last babies scan the measurements made her sound like she had a huge head and tummy, and tiny legs, but she was perfectly in proportion when born.

 

[Sonia1992]

I know that babies are in different shapes but I read some stories when short femurs were only markers for down syndrome. On one scan my baby had them two week behind (2 percentile) but now they are only 3 days behind ( 25percentile) and I don't know if it's it good sign and now it's not a marker because they have grow spurt and are almost normal now. Maybe someone have the same situation?

 

[LoraLoo]

I know that babies are in different shapes but I read some stories when short femurs were only markers for down syndrome. On one scan my baby had them two week behind (2 percentile) but now they are only 3 days behind ( 25percentile) and I don't know if it's it good sign and now it's not a marker because they have grow spurt and are almost normal now. Maybe someone have the same situation?

There would likely be other markers present too if there were any issues, and they would have told you. Its also hard to get accurate measurements and they are only a guide, it also depends o who is doing the measuring. Please talk to your dr or mw about your concerns so they can offer reassurance

 

[Sonia1992]

Thanks. In Poland we don't have mw. I go to my dr every two weeks and pay for it because i have high risk pregnancy (bicornuate uterus, suspected iugr) and for reassurance. My dr is not concerned, i'm a little crazy and worried about everything

 

[LoraLoo]

Youre not crazy just a concerned Mum ☺ Im sure your baby will be born beautifully healthy but i understand your worry, its what us Mums do best!

 

[Sander]

Yes my son had femurs measuring a week to two weeks behind at all his scans. I thought the same thing but my midwife wasn’t concerned and neither was the ultrasound tech. He came out totally healthy and he’s got nice long legs after all!

 

[Sonia1992]

I hope my baby have just short legs too but now femurs have big grow spurt and are only 3 days behind and i hope that on next visit they will be even bigger i read too much google and have found some stories with short femurs and down syndrome and i was scared before every scan. So now i'm quite happy that after spending ten weeks around 5th percentile they have grow spurt and almost caught up.

 

[DobbyForever]

My baby had a short femur at every scan. He just has shorter legs and a longer torso. No downs. He like 2%tile in height at birth and was 95th at his 9m check lol

 

[Sonia1992]

Thanks. That's great. My baby had big grow spurt in last few weeks and her femurs almost caugt up and I hope that on next scan they will be even bigger. I hope this is good sign, because if it's down syndrome they wouldn't catch up (???).

 

[DobbyForever]

I’m not sure about the relationship with femurs and downs. I think I saw it when I googled short femurs. Did you have any testing done first tri? I had an NT scan so I didn’t give much thought to the correlation of femurs and downs when I saw it online.

 

[Sonia1992]

Yes i had nt scan, but i found some stories when short femurs were only marker during pregnancy so I'm still worried. Now less because they caught up

 

[kksy9b]

My LO had a short femur marker at our 20 week scan and was told it could be anything from downs, dwarfism, skeletal dysplasia etc.... it turns out that doctor had no clue what he was talking about. A month later (and countless hours of stress and worry and research because the doctor REFUSED to answer any questions at the appointment) I went back to my regular OB for a checkup and mentioned what the doctor at the scan had said. They said it didn't seem right but sent me immediately to a high risk doctor for a detailed u/s. That doctor (who was amazing and patient and actually answered questions) said that a femur measurement in isolation really does not tell you anything at all. That there would be other markers as well such as a short humorous bone (from what i remember, he was speaking in terms of dwarfism and skeletal issues... i dont remember if he mentioned downs in this particular conversation). He said that the measurements in and of themselves are not wholly accurate or trustworthy...one technician might place the starting measurement in one spot and another just slightly off of that same starting spot...but that slight difference might make a big difference in where the baby is measuring...remember that we are talking about millimeters here.

Especially since your LO has caught up, if there are no other markers then I would try not to worry about it too much. 25% is awesome (i believe it's if you're measuring under 4% that they consider it to be "short" but i'm reaching back a couple years in my memory so that might be off). I'm sorry you are having to worry so much and I hope you can find some answers from your doctor soon to help alleviate some of the anxiety.

As a sidenote, my son had caught up after that month (babies go through different states of growth spurts). He was born around the 50th percentile for length and is now around 86% or so at age 4.

 

[Sonia1992]

thanks. My doctor isn't worried. I read too much in google, I don't know why, it only scares me. My baby's femur was ok on anatomy scan, but short on 22, 24, 26 and 28 week scan ( i have them very often not because of femur lenght) and finally on 30week scan they has caught up and were on 25%. I hope they will still grow. She is overally not very big ad her head, belly and femur are now all around 20-30 %.

 

[Rainbow82]

My sons femur length was five weeks behind his tummy measurement and two weeks behind his head measurement by the time he was born, he’s fine just s little shorter than average but looked perfectly proportioned when he was born. If there was an issue other markers would have been picked up as well. It’s hard but try not too worry.