Whats normal & whats not in premature twins/babies development?

[Jemeraldx]

I entered this exact same thread in another forum (multiples) one reply was ok, the other one pulled me on my grammer (no offence but I'm not on here for an english lesson- I apologise beforehand if my grammer & punctuation are not up to scratch). I asked if either of them had premature babies & the reply was that I should stop dwelling on the past experience of my time on SCBU. I don't take it as an insult. I don't 'dwell' on the past, the past has consequences & thats why I put this. My twins have had problems as a 'consequence' of being premature. I hoped if I put it on here I could talk to someone who 'understands'.Okay so I have 'just turned' 2 year old twins. they're identical & where born @ 29 weeks they weighed 2lb 30z & 3lb 2oz the first born & largest (our little 'fatty phoenix' lol) thrived & sailed through his time on the neonatal unit had usual things associated i.e on cipap, bit of reflux but otherwise okay. after 3 weeks on the ward smallest one (Josh - look up 'joshua ashton dolan' on youtube) deteriorated suffered 2 collapsed lungs after stopping breathing one night & had to be put on a ventilator his weight dropped down to 1lb 13oz but slowly he pulled through & got better. not only is he further behind developmentally but he's hfurther behind because he was so ill @ first he was only a couple of weeks behind mason (you could practically time it) for a child that could have brain damage he's now walking & doing just about everything except talk we thought it could be his ears he doesn't seem to hear us ( or just ignores us) they were both born with cleft palates which have now been repaired which can lead to glue ear which we were told they both had on there last visit to see the hearing specialist we went for a further check up hoping it would be the same they would fit gromits & it would make a difference only for us to be told they were clear we'd always put it down to bvad hearing now I don't know what to blame it on He says mam mam or nan nan when hes upset the rest of the time its just noises he makes at the back of his throat his brother mason is still not stringing words together but uses more words nan nan/daddad/mamam yeah/no etc & seems to have a greater understanding of things but he does talk to Josh (although no one knows what hes saying & Josh doesn't talk back but seems to understand what hes saying) is it a twin thing? because I've heard it can be delayed in twins or is it a premature thing? I don't know anymore.

I just wanted to reply because your post struck a chord with me. I had non-id twins (boy/girl) at 27+6, Twin 1 (girl) was 2lb 6oz and Twin 2(boy) was 2lb 6.5oz. He was behind right from the start - he had to go on a ventilator (she didn't need any help with breathing at all), in the very early days, he was always on a lower amount of milk, spent more time on cpap, was tube fed for much longer etc but once we got them home, he was a better feeder, put more weight on etc. However developmentally, he was behind his sister with sitting up, rolling (think there was about 6 weeks between them for this) and especially his speech. We were referred for hearing tests right from the start which were hit and miss - they said he couldn't hear very quiet sounds / had glue ear / just didn't co-operate with the tests. He made noises but didn't really speak, one day he said strawberry completely out of the blue but would then go for days without saying a proper word. I also went through a phase of thinking there was a real problem with his hearing but think now with the benefit of hindsight that he just couldn't be bothered listening to me etc!

To cut a long story short, they're now 6. He was seen by the audiologist until he was 5 I think to monitor things and at that point, he understood the test / co-operation etc. They say his hearing is fine, certainly not at a level where his development would be affected.

From a talking point of view, just after his 3rd birthday we were referred to a speech therapist because he had a slight stutter - obviously this is not your issue but the speech therapist's advice was quite good. She said that twins will develop at different speeds - as any 2 children would - and sometimes one twin is more vocal than the other reinforcing the problem as they tend to do the talking for the pair. Certainly as mine developed there was no 'need' for my boy to speak, my little girl always got in there first!! I do think too (although the speech therapist didn't confirm it) that premature babies can be behind in their speech - we were under the neonatal consultant as out patients until they were 2 - I definitely remember him signing them off at 2 saying he didn't need to see them again even though he said they were 3 months behind their peers in terms of speech. He didn't think that was unduly concerning at that age.

My advice would probably be to speak to your HV again - I think speech therapist referrals can't be done before a certain age - in our area it was 3, so keep an eye on things until then, do everything you can to encourage speech in the interim and then ask for a referral if you're still concerned in a few months.

hello, sounds like you've all had a tough time.
my little boy was born at 28 weeks at 1lb 11oz, and had similar problems, stopped breathing, back in hospital a few times etc.
both myself and dad are english, but we are living in germany, so he will (hopefully) grow up bilingual.
i was worried about his speech/understanding for a long time and tried the 'sing and sign' dvd as i didn't really know how to help and obviously there is not much opportunity to join baby classes as all support is in german.
i am sure this helped, just for him to understand what communication was initially, and then he started to use simple signs back to me. He's 2 now and his speech is pretty much on track - would you be interested in signing classes or buying the dvd maybe?

just saw your message on other thread, congratulations on your pregnancy, i'm pregnant again too, 16 weeks. hope all is well x

Well firstly I'm so glad I put this on here. I'm not looking for sympathy just empathy, just someone who's been/going through the same thing. Ditto Mandy21! mine are just like that twin1 babbles & does all the talking, sometimes its like he's talking to twin 2 & he understands! - even though he doesn't talk/babble back. I'm not really too worried I just wanted to know wether anyone else has been through the same or at least a similar thing. We've been to see the speech therapist who just said she'd wait for the hearing test. The past tests have been the same as yours, hit & miss but I don't think he's ever had a clear one. Also twin 1 is the bossiest! he's started telling twin 2 off!lol. If we tell twin 2 off, example: he's banging on the fireplace (they both do this sometimes) twin 1 will go over (usually babbling something) waving his hand! takes twin 2's hand off & starts tapping him! (once he hit him with a spoon!). I've also wondered wether its down to selective hearing? I'm probably more confused than upset by it. Its hard because its like theres a big question mark above his head & we won't know anything till he gets older, reading your post has given me a bit of hope at least. & elfslight firstly thankyou! congratulations to you 2! hope everything goes well for you! & yes learning sign language as always been of interest for me. I would probably get a dvd. They did it at the surestart centre once but they seemed young for it at the time, they haven't had it since & I think they'd be too old to qualify for it now. I'm glad everythings turned out well for both of you! & thnx for your posts.

Hi,

I think it was a bit mean for someone to say stop "dwelling" on the past. They obviously haven't had a prem baby as its very hard to escape the fact they were born early.

My daughter was born at 25+2 at 1lb 13 oz and in now 31/2 years old. She has only really started on her speech in the last 6 months but is still way behind her peer group by about a year. She can say 2 or 3 word sentences but that's about it.

You don't say in your message what specialists you see - we have continued to see development doctor, occupational therapy and now see educational psychologist and speech therapist. It may be worth asking for a referral from GP.

Firstly my apologies I haven't been on here in a while had some problems with the pc. mumtoprem I totally agree with you I also wonder wether the 'nasties' & 'stick up there arses' on here would be so rude in real life instead of hiding behind a computer. Statring from the beginning they were under a nurse who used to work on scbu for the first couple of weeks she was happy with them & discharged them. I managed to escape the health visitor for the first year & a half (hallelujah! - i'm not a fan) due to them having a cleft palate she discharged shortly after they had them repaired, although I have her number if I ever need her. They're currently under ophthalmology because of risk of rop, ENT due to risk of glue ear due to cleft, dr freelander (trent cleft lip & palate) due to cleft palates & also due to a problem with one of my sons toes (he's a plastic surgeon). They're under physio, but they're fairly happy with them just keeping an eye on Josh because he's still walking with a wide gait but I think they'll discharge us soon (another of the list). They were under genetics because they both had cleft palates & josh had abnormal toes & they're under speech therapist & development doctor. Its annoying to have so many appointments but reassuring to have all the backup behind you.