It has taken me forever to get back in here to give an update - so sorry.


So. Originally when I discovered the huge fluid-filled squishy lump that appeared out of nowhere on my baby's head (i posted about this in about feb. /march), I took her to my family doctor. He x-rayed to rule out a fracture which he said is the most common reason for such a bump to appear (fluid leaks out). When he saw that it wasn't a fracture, he was pretty unconcerned and said it would "eventually" re-absorb itself in a few months.

Even though I trust my family doctor, I ended up taking my baby to emergency a few days later because I thought the lump looked even bigger (about the size and dimension of her own little fist). I also could feel that there seemd to be a weird lumpy feeling to her skull, as though it was misshapen under the lump. The emergency doctor reiterated what my family doctor said. He looked at the x-rays and told me that everything was fine. He said that when the fluid is outside the scalp, between the scalp and the skin, they don't worry about it. He said the lumpy bumpy skull is actually the suture line between the plates of the skull and is normal even though it feels very gross and doesn't necessarily match the way the other side of the head feels in the same location.


So, still feeling as though I wanted more information about this disgusting and alarming thing on my baby's head, I went to my pediatrician. He took one look at her, smiled, and said "she got whacked in the head." I said something indignant like "what do you mean? Of course she didn't get whacked in the head!". To which he smilingly replied that yes, indeed, these bumps are caused by a whack or knock of some sort on the noggin. He said sometimes a sibling hits them when you're not looking, or they tip over, or get a bit of a bump somehow, and voila, this yucky lump is the result. It apparently happens when there's a trauma right along a skull suture line, and it doesn't have to be a big trauma, it just has to hit in the right place on the skull.


He further said that the lump can show itself even days or weeks after the bump to the head, so it's not easy to make any sort of correlation.


So that's it. None of the doctors were worried at all once they ruled out a fractured skull, and indeed, the lump began to shrink after a few weeks, and within maybe 3 months was gone altogether.

Hope this helps someone out there who has found this board because they're scared out of their wits that their precious little someone seems to have a bizarre problem. Try not to worry, and go get a fracture ruled out. If your family doctor acts confused, go to emerg and ask for a peds guy to have a look. Or just go to the pediatrician in the first place. If i'd done that, I would have saved myself weeks of panic and worry.


By the way, I had my baby at home. Her birth was totally untraumatic (well, for her... It sucked bigtime for me :lol:) and I did not have any sort of intervention. No vaccuum, no forceps, no nothing. So for parents who are reading these posts and have a baby that was born "untraumatically" but still exhibits this weird sort of lump, please know that it happened to my baby!



Take good care, try not to worry!


Kerry

As predicted, it just went away. I'm sorry to say, I couldn't say exactly when, but it took a long time _ probably two to three months. My son is totally normal now, except for the epileptic seizures.
Just kidding. Sorry I guess that's not funny. He's totally normal. Normal weight, developmentally fine in all respects.
So, young parents, my advice: don't get it lanced or anything, just treat that mushy patch gently and enjoy the ride.

Best,

lbsterling

I noticed a squishy little lump towards the back of my sons head when he was around 2 months old, the size has varied a little but it's always been about the size of a dime. It got far more noticeable when he would get upset and sometimes you can only see/feel it when he is laying down. At times it almost seemed like it was going away but he is almost 2 years old now and it's still there. Again, doctors didn't know what it was but weren't worried, speculated that it might be a hemangioma (sp?) there are a lot of varations of those. We had a waste of time ultrasound where they couldn't see anything and a dermatologist looked at it. It seems almost like a vein/vessel or something is squeezed between where the skull meets and it worries me sick at times, I searched the net extensively and this is the closest thing I have found to similar but he was an emergency c-section, no vacuums, no pushing and it never grew large and obviously hasn't gone away . Maybe someone else out there will find this. Oh, and the bump is flesh colored, blends in with the scalp.

I was so happy to read this. I just noticed the bump last week. (My son is 11 weeks old). It causes me a lot of worry, but my ped. said not to worry about it. I feel much better now!

Hi all,

I found this topic when browsing the internet for a similar problem. My baby was delivered by c section after a failed vacuum extraction, following an attempted forceps extraction.

This happened also to my baby at 13 weeks. Literally, overnight a bump formed on the back of her head and within 3-5 days it doubled in size till a small glass was able to fit snugly over the bump.

I saw 2 doctors regarding this. The first, who was an immigration doctor, said he had never seen it before, but, seemed to think that because it was not causing any discomfort nor showing like a bruise ( ie discolouration etc) the vacuum suction seemed the most probable cause. His advice was to monitor and observe and if worried again to speak to another doctor.

Two weeks after, i took my baby to a maternity doctor, who, to my relief had seen this many times and confirmed that it was a vacuum stretch. She said it was unusual in a 13 week old baby, but not "that unusual". Such a relief. Like most mothers, i was worried about more sinister reasons for a swelling, ie like she had been dropped or something was draining from her brain chamber etc.

After two further weeks, the swelling has almost gone and is now the size of a quarter / 2 pence piece and is reducing daily. Never was she in pain from this swelling. My advice, as per many of you before, is do take your baby to the doctor, but try to find a maternity doctor / midwife / district nurse and not a GP. Im not saying that a GP wouldnt be able to diagnose, please do not think that, but a maternity doctor or equivalent will probably be more experienced with infants.

We all know our babies best and we will know if something is the matter, although saying that, never would i have left it without at least having an opinion.

Hope this helps anyone in the same situ.

My daughter has the same bubble everyone is talking about. I noticed hers when she was 6 weeks old. I took her to her Doctor that same day. They were stumped. Two doctors looked at her and had no clue. They said " I can't think of anything bad it could be". A few days later i saw a friend of mine who is a pediatric nurse at our children's hospital. She recommended that i taker her down to the ER. So i did. She saw 4 more doctors. She puzzled 4 more doctors. They did a ct scan and ruled out infection, fracture and pressure or blood on the brain. Again they said it can't be bad and sent me home and told me to wait. This was on a Saturday, i had a follow up visit with her primary care doctor on Monday. We went and they referred us to the diagnostics Clinic at children's hospital. There she saw a doctor who ordered and ultrasound. She believed it to be fluid left over from the bruising the monitoring electrodes caused at birth. However, in the radiology department she saw 3 more doctors who determined in was Lymphatic Fluid coming from the lymph nodes in her neck. They told me to watch it. They said it may re absorb all on its own and be fine. HOWEVER. If it does not go away i am supposed to return to the Diagnostic clinic and they will from there refer me to the Malformation clinic because it may be a malformation of her lymph nodes. Maybe they're over reaching and maybe its just like everyone else on here.... maybe it will go away. But maybe consider discussing this idea with your Doctors.

If anyone knows anything else helpful pm me.

I am so glad we found this post! We noticed a strange bubble of fluid on the top of our 8 week old son's head, we searched and searched while waiting for the on-call pediatrician to call us back. Luckily we found this site, so I stopped panicking so much (although it was the only thing we found that was related to the symptoms he was having.)

We brought him to the doctor's today to have them look at it and they ordered an xray of the skull and an ultrasound of the brain. I mentioned that he was a vacuum extracted baby, just in case. The xray came back clean, but the ultrasound was inconclusive, so we have an appointment with the Pediatric Neurosurgeon at Yale New Haven in three days where they will do a CT Scan and check him. When the pediatrician explained the condition and the results of the ultrasound and xray to the neurosurgeon, he assumed that since the baby was vacuum extracted that the swelling of the tissue went down, but the fluid didn't completely dissapaite, which is why we are just noticing it (in other words, it had been swollen since birth, now that the tissue swelling had healed, we are only seeing the remaining fluid.)

I was relieved to have found this post and hope this information helps any others who may experience the same condition. I'll post an update after our appt. with neuro.

like everyone else on this blob my son who is six weeks and also has a fluid bubble. my sister in law found this while looking for answers when we discovered this and immedialtely headed for the er. Small town, not the greatest hospital in the first place left us heading to the city to childrens hospital. Here they too tested for everything, we had a slight curve from other blogs I have read about here. By the time we got to the childrens hospital my son had spiked a temp, I know that changes everything and can be a telltale sign of something horrible........I am counting my blessings, all the tests show us it was just a coincidence that it happened at the same time as this bubble appeared. So after being at the hospital for about 10 hours last night and coming home drained emotionally and physically, i felt the need to post a blog since reading these helped calm my nerves. So thank you to all who shared there experience. To all parents searching through this blog panic stricken, just try to hang in there and definitely demand tests for your piece of mind if that is what it will take. I will come back and post another blog when this fluid does go away. Oh by the way I was assured it will not pop open!!!!!!!!!! good luck all and blessings to all these lil miracles of ours

Our son developed fluid under the scalp at about week 12 and it was almost overnight. He's been seen by a couple pediatricians, a pediatric surgeon, and has had an ultrasound. He's going to get a contrast CT scan tomorrow. Like most of the rest of the posts in this thread, the doctors are stumped. The good news is that he is alert, happy, and otherwise completely healthy.

He had a difficult delivery including about 6 hours of pushing, a failed vacuum extraction, and an emergency c-section.

I rushed my 5 week old son into the ER early one morning after noticing a huge bump on the back of his head. After the ER doctors questioned me if he had been dropped or bumped into the proceded to do a CT-scan. After waiting over an hour for the results the Dr. walked into the room accompanied by a social worker!! I couldn't believe my eyes. They said that the CT-scan showed that there was nothing wrong with the brain, no skull fracture, and there was obviously no bruise on his head. They said since he was a c-section baby and not natural birth that he has not experienced any kind of head trauma due to madical reasons. So thats when the social worker said to me that my son had been hit or dropped forcefully!............................... .......So they called CPS, took my son from me, placed him in a foster home, put my 4 1/2 yr old daughter with her father, and i am going to court trying to fight to get my kids back when i have no clue what could've caused that fluid on the back of his head!!! If there is a dr. out there that can help please!!! I am so helpless... I know my son has never ben bumped or dropped or hit..

I am sooo happy i found this site. My son is 12 weeks and five days ago i noticed a golf ball size bump on his head that was very soft and squishy. i took him to the ped. who then sent us to the ER. we had a CT which came back fine, but the ped still wanted us to see a neurologist. I have been searching online for days and there seems to be NO INFO!!! I feel so much better knowing other babies have had this. The only difference is, i did not have a vaccum birth. i tried to push for 20 minutes and wasnt succeeding and then had a c-sect.
I go to the neurologist tomorrow, but feel much better about going. I do think it is weird that there is not a definite name for it but I will post any results when i find out.

i just wanted to update. i went to the neurosurgeon who did not seem worried at all. he said he has seen this hundreds of time and called it a cephalohematoma. i have searched it online and every site says this follows after birth and usually after a vaccum birth. i wish i could just find one site that said it can come at 12 weeks and after a c-sect, but if the neurosurgeon isnt worried i guess its ok. i go back in a month and he said he could drain it...but it does worry me about infections, so if its not gone i may just give it a few more months. i wish there were more sites like this out there...becuase it has really made me feel better

My daughter is a seven week old and developed what appears to be a similar fluid mass when she was six weeks old. So far, the pediatricians all say they have never seen this before. They did a CT Scan, which came back normal. She is scheduled for an ultrasound next week. All of the postings regarding this are a couple years old. Did everything come back normal?

My daughter is a seven week old and developed what appears to be a similar fluid mass when she was six weeks old. So far, the pediatricians all say they have never seen this before. They did a CT Scan, which came back normal. She is scheduled for an ultrasound next week. All of the postings regarding this are a couple years old. Did everything come back normal?

My daughter is a week away from being 4 months old and a week ago we noticed this bump on her head. We took her to the family doctor and we were told she must have bumped it. We didn't feel that was possiable. A week later it hadn't gone down so we took her to the ER and after a CAT scan she was givin a clean bill of health. Just like everyone else stated, she is happy, healthy, and growing right on schedule. We too had a hard delivery, she was vacumed and they actually cut her head a little with the vac. We are being told that the head hasn't healed 100% in that area and that is why the fluid is in that spot, but it will go away and she'll be ok. We are worried sick, but i feel a little better knowing she isn't the only one with this, and we aren't the only parents going through this. I will update once I know more.

Our Son was 12weeks old when I noticed a soft fluid swelling just above the crown of his head, it hadn't been present earlier in the day as I am breastfeeding him and would have noticed. I asked my Husband to check it and we decided to phone our Health Visitor for advice, they really didn't know what it could be and advised us to bring him to see the On-Call GP that afternoon. The GP examined our Son and as his behave was unchanged (he is very laid back,content and rarely cries unless he is ready for a feed) and there was no cause for the swelling he advised us to go home and monitor the swelling and if it increased in size to contact him again. Both my Husband and I felt sick with worry and decided to take him to the A&E department on Saturday to be checked out, our Son was still showing no signs of any distress and it was as if the swelling was not causing him any problems just us worry! We were seen by a Nurse and then the On-Call Dr, they took all the usual history and then the questions (or suggestions started) that we probably caught the babies head on the bannister as we carried him downstairs or that we could have left him unattended and he bumped his own head, don't get me wrong I know that questions are to be asked but there is a certain manner in which this could be done rather than accusations from the offset. We were told we would have to get his head Xray'd and if it showed a fracture then they would check the register (I assume this was the child register). The Xray didn't show any fracture as we knew it wouldn't and they became more relaxed with us, we were advised to take our Son to the Children's ward to see the Paediatricians for an examination and ?further scans. We arrived on the ward and the Paediatrians felt the swelling, pinched it and thoroughly examined him and still he didn't cry. They mentioned possibilities like encephaceal, fluid from around the brain that had popped up through a gap in his skull along a suture line that hadn't formed correctly, we did ask if due to me having had an emergency caesarian after failed ventouse if the ventouse could have caused it as the Doctor was shaking trying to extract the baby in theatre, the Paediatricians didn't feel that this could be the case. We were then allowed to take our Son home and asked to bring him back the following day to be re-examined, we were then told he would need an Ultrasound Scan of his head to rule out the above, we had an appt for Monday afternoon and the scan was performed, the Paediatrician came to see us with the results and said she thought it could be a ?cranial meningocele and that the best option would be a referral to our local Neurologist to get this checked out, she said that in the meantime if the swelling went down to still keep the appt. During our wait for the appt the swelling decreased in size day by day, I received an appt in just over a week after we were first seen, the Neurologist went straight to touch where the swelling had been and immediately asked if he had been delivered by ventouse we said it had been a failed ventouse delivery which was followed by a CSection, the Neurologist then said it was highly likely that too much pressure was given when trying to extract our Son during labour and it had caused a cyst due to the vaccum stretch, I was very annoyed that the Hospital hadn't given this as a possible cause.
Thankfully the swelling disappeared totally and no further lumps have appeared.

We decided to post our event on this board as my Husband actually found the site when we first noticed the swelling, it actually gave us some hope that it could be a similar case as to what had already been posted. We just wanted to give others hope and as we now have a review appt in 3 months time to see the Neurologist for final assessment we feel that we have followed things up as much as we could for reassurance.

My son had a fluid-filled bump appear on top of his soft spot right around 9 weeks or so. He was otherwise healthy and didn't mind if you touched it,etc, although it continued to get bigger. I first took him to the pediatrician who wasn't sure what it was they were looking at. We were then sent to the hospital to have an ultrasound done and get a radiologist's reading, hoping they might know what it was. After conferring with his colleagues and checking the literature, he too was stumped as to what it could be. Finally, we were sent to see a pediatric neurosurgeon who IMMEDIATELY knew what it was.

She told us our son had a congenital inclusion cyst of the subgaleal space. In layman's terms, this meant that a "dermoid" or collection of skin cells had sealed themselves off around 3-5 weeks gestation and continued to grow hair follicles, sweat glands,(sometimes even bone fragments or teeth!) but within their own little cyst-like circle. She explained that anytime the skin sweats or sloughs off skin,etc (which would normally be lost to the environment) these particles get trapped in the cyst in his head.... creating this slow-growing, fluid-filled mass. The good news was that they're almost always benign although they can sometimes wear away at the skull in babies or children whose fontanels have closed if left too long. The unfortunate thing was that they continue to grow (as the cells are always working and creating more waste), so it needs to come out surgically. Our son has since had an MRI to be sure there is no communication to the brain or his sinus (which there isn't), so he's scheduled to have it out next week. While having head surgery wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, I can't tell you how happy I am to finally know what this is and know he's going to be alright. I hope this is helpful to some of you parents out there who are still trying to get a diagnosis. What your child has may not be the same, but it's definitely worth bringing this information up to your pediatrician to see if it could be this type of cyst. Good luck and try not to worry too much!

My daughter just turned 8 months old at the end of February, and over the past couple of days we notices a mushy lump the size of a quarter on the back of her head, at the bottom, towards the right, where the head and the neck connect. It doesnt seem to bother her when I touch it, but it's really concerning me!

Can anyone help? Because I cant find any answers what-so-ever.

Our baby same thing. At five weeks our son developed a puffiness at the area of suction and now at six weeks it has grown and the fluid is very noticeable (wavy when softly touching the area afflicted). Based upon all the posts here, I too am convinced that this fluid puffiness of our son's scalp is a direct result of vacuum birth. One thing I find very interesting is that in most, if not all, the posts, doctors were perplexed. I don't think that is the case one bit. I think it is a systemic problem in our health care system that doctors will conveniently err on the side of caution and request expensive testing at the behest of disclosing general knowledge of this condition and providing parents with a more informed decision to go ahead with the tests or simply monitor the condition and the baby and come back if things get worse. In other words, our health care system is in shambles and doctors are the main contributors to their own problems. I'm sorry that I'm a bit negative toward doctors but wow, this condition did not suddently start occurring with newborns. I'm willing to bet what's left of my 401K that this condition can be found in medical texts, among other places (here). Anyway,
I will re-post if at about 12-16 weeks the condition has disappeared. From the various posts here, this seems to be the range of time that we should see improvement. Take care all and thanks for providing the information.

My son is 9 months old, let me say that again, 9 months old!!! And i DIDN"T have a vacuum birth and my son has the fluid filled egg. I was worried at first, took him to the e.r. just like you all did and he's fine. There were NO problems with birth. So if you had a vacuum birth, it has NOTHING to do with this situation. You're not a Dr. so don't play Dr.
His Dr. said it was fine, nothing to be alarmed about. That he had simply taken a hit to the head and ruptured blood vessles under the skin.
Rest at5 ease tonight mommies and stop freakin everyone else out!!!