Norm Values of Head Circumference in Turkish Children

Physical growth of babies and children is an important determinant of health and disease conditions. Growth curves serve physician to determine at what point the child deviates from normal measurements. And also can provide information, whether the child needs to be examined, by considering the nutritional status and general health status (Gokcay et al. 2008). Although head circumference measures skull size, it typically reflects overall brain volume and can be described as a “widely used indicator of neural growth and brain size”. Brain size out of normal values, is an important risk factor for cognitive and motor delay (Harris 2015). Head circumference is a major diagnostic and prognostic marker used to help in identifying symmetric or asymmetric growth, microcephaly and macrocephaly. All of these items are associated with many reasons that require further evaluation. It is therefore essential that the clinician should be supported with trustworthy and representative reference growth curves