Femur and humerus measuring short. Anyone experiencing this?

BonnyJW

31 weeks and the long bones are measuring short. Doctor said everything could be fine or the baby could have a form of dwarfism. I'm really trying not to stress out until the follow up u/s in three weeks which is proving to be impossible. Anyone else measuring short? What did your dr say?

azimum

@BonnyJW my baby's femur and humerus have been measuring two weeks behind since I was 21 weeks (25 now). The specialist had me take every sort of genetic test out there (everything short of an amnio, which we declined), and everything has come back fine. She also said it could be some form of dwarfism, but ruled that out as well based on ultrasound findings (something about facial features and the bones looking straight). As of now, the theory is that my placenta is not functioning 100% as it should, which is depriving baby of nutrients and causing the short long bones. 

As long as the baby continues to grow on its current growth curve, the doctor will not worry. If it dips further below, then that is when they will get more aggressive about monitoring. Good luck with your next scan, I know the wait in between is the WORST, but this too shall pass!

BTW, a few things I have tried was increasing my water intake, my protein intake, lying on my left side, and cutting out exercise/yoga. The cutting out exercise was suggested by the specialist, who said something like your legs take up to 70% of your blood flow, so the more you take it easy, the more blood flow can go to the placenta, in theory helping it function better to give more nutrients to your baby to help it grow. I feel that a combination of these things have helped my baby stay on her current growth curve, and hoping she continues to!

BonnyJW

Thank you so much for responding. This gives me a lot of hope! The thought that something might be physically wrong with our son that will make his life more difficult is almost too much to handle. I am on bed rest now for gestational hypertension so I'm definitely taking it easy Thank you for the advice, I'm going to up my water and protein intake. It's not going to hurt.

rklinge0

Have you done chromosome testing? It is a soft marker for downs.

BonnyJW

We had chromosome testing done early on and everything came back clear

christinemelanie

I've been told that early on, around 19 weeks during anatomy scan. I've had friends who were told the same thing and their baby came out fine. My baby measures pretty normal everywhere else. One MFM said the measuring can be slightly off due to baby moving, etc so sometimes it's within their range of measurement error. Hubby and I aren't too worried about it anymore as our tests came back clear and she measures normal everywhere else, her heart and other organs look good. She's also been growing at a steady rate, even her short long bones. Try not to worry momma, and will pray everything works out for us!

BonnyJW

Thanks! I saw my regular OB today and she made me feel a little better. She said that there are zero other indicators that anything is wrong and she re-reviewed the 20 week scan results and said that everything looks perfect to her. Will see more specialists next week and the week after. Fingers crossed that he keeps growing and everything is fine.

christinemelanie

@BonnyJW OP, how are you doing? Was just thinking of you! Hope all is well