[Differential physical growth during the 1st year of life. II. Growth of the head].

The corporal segment that display the major growth velocity before and after born is the head; that is, once a baby is born, it represents the fourth part of the stature, it has the greater corporal circumference, and their development is superior than other corporal segments. However, the growth shape of the craniofacial structures is different; so, the growth gradient of brain, is the responsible of the morphological view described previously; the facial structures follow the general growth curve; moreover, the facial bone that contributes with the growth of brain, describes mixed growth gradients. This complex shape of the head growth, requires the existence of growth standards for these structures. The present paper describes the results of longitudinal research on head growth. We studied 200 children of both sex and ages from 0 to 1 year of extrauterine life. We got 18 growth measures of the head, such as: head circumference, head length and width, minimum frontal diameter; head, total facial, upper facial, and nose height; bizygomatic, bigonial, external bipalpebral, internal bipalpebral and nose widths; length and width of lips and ear. Moreover, we report the final increments and the differences on sexual dimorphism.