|
Preterm births (before 37 weeks gestation) are common. In fact, about 12 percent of babies in the United States are born prematurely.
And there are many medical conditions that these preemie babies face, including intraventricular hemorrhages, retinopathy of prematurity, apnea and bradycardia, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia. But once they get outside the newborn period, the worry usually falls to the premature baby's future development.
Will your preemie have developmental delays?
One of the biggest factors that will help determine your baby's future development is how premature he was. Of course, a 25 weeker might have more developmental problems than a 34 weeker, who might quickly catch up with a normal baby's development.
Studies have shown that:
- half of all babies born at 20-25 weeks gestation have some disability at 30 months of age, with a quarter having severe disabilities. Extremely premature babies are also at risk for later behavioral and educational difficulties.
- 10% to 50% of infants born before 30 weeks' gestation or with extremely low birth weight have severe neurologic and developmental disabilities
- at school age a greater percentage of VLBW youngsters than normal-birthweight children have a specific learning problem requiring special education services, with some studies finding 50% or greater requiring services
A new study offers hope to all parents of premature babies. Appearing in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the research study, Change in cognitive function over time in very low-birth-weight infants concluded that most Very Low Birth Weight 'children had improvement in verbal and IQ test scores over time.'
Another article, Outcome of Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants (500 to 999 Grams) Over a 12-Year Period, which appeared in the journal Pediatrics concluded that 'low birth weight was not associated with abnormal outcome' and they had 'no neurologic, neurosensory, or cognitive deficits.'
When will he catch up?
At first, it is helpful to compare your preemie child's development using his corrected age, instead of his actual age. So if your baby was born at 29 weeks (8 weeks early) and is now 4 months old, you would expect his development to be at the level of a 2 month old. His corrected age is 2 months, which is equal to his current age minus his level of prematurity.
When do you stop using corrected age? Once your child catches up. If a preemie is now 6 months old and is sitting up on his own and rolling over, then you don't have to think about his corrected age of 4 months anymore. For most premature babies, you can stop using a corrected age at around age 2-3 years.
It is also important to think of your child's corrected age when you consider milestones such as when he should be sleeping through the night and when you should start solids, etc. In fact, many experts advise that premature babies don't begin to sleep through the night until a corrected age of 6 months.
Promoting Preemie Development
There are some things that you can do to help your premature baby develop normally, including:
- breastfeed for at least 12 months
- if you aren't breastfeeding, consider giving a premature formula supplemented with DHA and ARA
- have your child evaluated and monitored by an early childhood intervention program, with a physical therapist and occupation therapist and/or see a developmental pediatrician
|
