Daniel has to go for a cranial scan on we'd at X-ray dept of our local hospital. Has anyone's lo had this done? If so what's it for and what can I expect? Daniel will be 36+4 then when I asked at Nicu before discharge what it was for they just said 'to check he has developed fully'. Matthew, my other prem lo didn't have this scan but Daniel was 10 weeks early rather than the 7 weeks so wondering if it's a gestation thing xx

Alex has his tomorrow. They just told me it's to check the brain and make sure it's developing correctly. I'll let you know what they say if you like x

Thanks. Say hi to Pauline, Andrew and baby Andrew for me if u see them x

Juno had this the morning of her discharge and I was told it was because she had, had brain flares and a grade 1 bleed in the first week after her birth and it was to assess the ventricle development and what impact the bleed may have had. I was told the ventricles looked to be normal and although she had, had frequent ultrasound scans in nicu and scbu the x ray department had a more thorough machine and would show everything up in greater detail. I was a bit pissed at the time though as no one bothered to inform us that she had, had a brain flare or a grade 1 bleed, it was literally on her discharge day they told us about it. Good luck! xo

I'm beginning so notice at nicu don't tell parents the full story until they need too! There was no mention of Daniel suffered any bleeds etc but I am worried about cerebral palsy as his wee legs are very rigid and difficult to straighten out at times - hoping its just wind related x

I will do

I would think the reason you are going for a scan is because he wasn't in long enough to have them all in hospital. Abby was scanned three times in NNICU. Matty and Daniel will have had scans whilst in hospital but if there were no issues you probably weren't aware they did it, it is entirely routine. I can almost guarantee of a bleed was found, you would have been told.

CP would not manifest itself with stiff limbs at such a young age. It pretty much only becomes a problem beyond a year old. Abby always had quite floppy limbs. Only later did the stiffness come in.

Alex had his PVL today. It was an ultrasound of his brain. They said it's routine for all preemies to make sure their brains are developing correctly and that there are no bleeds etc. Alex was given a clean bill of health which is great news. Pauline said hi x

Andrew had three or four u/sound scans of his head while he was on NICU to monitor his pre-birth bleed (and presumably check that another hadn't happened). They actually wheeled an u/s scanner alongside his incubator & cot, did the scan in situ.

He had one MRI scan also when in NICU, this was to determine whether the bleed was on the brain side of the membrane or the skull side.

I certainly noticed it and obviously was pretty cross we hadn't been informed of the grade 1 bleed when she was first born and then the subsequent brain flares during the following weeks she was in NICU. They were thorough with their scanning and she was scanned pretty much every week whilst in NICU but it was just a total lack of communication between the consultants and ourselves as her parents that pissed me off. In fact that was one thing I still don't understand about the set up of the nicu and scbu our daughter was in. Unless we specifically requested meetings with her consultant or another dr it was always left up to the nurses to give us a quick run down of what had been happening and again sometimes they couldn't tell us things as it was the drs decision as to what would happen in regards to her treatment. I think that the parents as the childs only advocate in this time should have routine meetings on a weekly basis with the drs as a matter of course. Sorry for the rant, your reply just reminded me off how stupid the system was, our daughter was in hospital for 9 weeks, NICU for 6 and SCBU for 3 and in that time the consultant met with us just once after we requested to speak to her having not even met her for the 7 weeks our daughter had been in her care at that stage. It was also at this meeting we had been told she had a heart defect even though her heart scan had been done 4 weeks previous...grrr! XO