Talk to me about your prem babies grown up?

[Valdeeves]

Have you noticed anything different about them compared to their peers as they approach school age? Are they on track?

Yes completely on track. Out of all my friends who had term babies at a similar time he is the only one without any issues.

DS1 isnt, hes a fair bit behind his peers and has dyspraxia and dyslexia. He is also very small for his age, wears age 7-8 clothes and hes 12 soon.

He was born at 30 weeks due to IUGR and Pre eclampsia weighing 2lb, so was tiny for gestation :)

He is an amazing boy though, very bright, articulate and extremely clever! Never stops talking and is going to be a scientist when he grows up

My 31+3, 2lb 8oz DD had caught up size-wise by the time she was 3. She has had no issues at all fortunately, despite having had a very tough start with quite a few rocky moments. She's now 13, taller than me and doing very well in yr 8.

I have a 9 year old DS who was born at 27 weeks. When he started school at just over 4 I was worried as he was very shy and sensitive and small but he flourished at school and now in year 5 he is popular, clever (top sets for numeracy, literacy) and average height but still very skinny (he doesn't weigh much more than his 3 yo brother!)

I remember being worried as he seemed to mature much more slowly than his peers, he cried easily and was really sensitive. I remember he started playing for a football team at 6yo and for the first 18 months to 2 years he was in tears if he got tackled or something didn't go right but eventually he matured and caught up and now is just as tough as the others!

Nobody can tell he was prem, I find it hard to believe sometimes just how "normal" he is when I expected the worst.

The only thing I am sad about now is that he has a lot of adult teeth and they are yellow, really yellow this is because of the cocktail of drugs he was on when born and in the grand scheme of things is nothing but I am so gutted.

Is your DC starting school soon?

My 21 year old twins still have problems, no short term memory, problems orientating themselves and getting lost in strange places. Now on disability benefit as they are not fit to work. They were born at 30 weeks and were both ventilated for just over a month.

do you really want to know this? You will get lots of positive stories and good luck to all of those whose children don't have problems. But you do know the stats on disability surely?

what matter to you is surely your own child.

My daughter was 28+0, 1lb 12oz. She's now 12 and incredibly tiny for her age and has dyspraxia. Her physical development has always been behind and even now she has the PE abilities of a 7 year old and can't tie shoelaces, open heavy doors or walk in a straight line. Academically she is astounding. She had a degree of RoP, but it resolved itself quickly. We were lucky, she didn't need any oxygen therapy, had no infections and no bleeds. Socially awkward and another sensitive one. Always very quick to pick up bugs and illnesses. Still has small scars on the backs of her hands from cannulas as a baby.

My son was 36+1, 4lb 14oz. Was on oxygen therapy for a week and had problems relating to jaundice for 3 months. He has had varying degrees of respiratory problems since birth and now at six is happy and fairly healthy, though he has brittle asthma and frequent hospital admissions. When he's well, he's very well, when he's poorly, it's terrifying. No different to other kids in size or ability.

I think this is a great thread and would love to see more. I don't think it means we are dwelling on the negative at all but more knowing what we could expect.

I had twins at 30 weeks. My daughter had no issues in utero and was born at 2lb 12oz. My son however had IUGR and was 1lb 12oz. They are now 13 months actual. My daughter is growing fine and bang on middle of the percentile graph. My son however is still growing v slowly but still on his curve which is just below 0.4 line and weighs 15.5lb. All the dr's tell me not to worry as he is fine developmentally and is healthy. I have been advised however that he may not catch up as his growth in utero was so compromised.

I know I'm v lucky to have him and he had no major issues in nicu/scbu. I'm just wondering for those with small babies that have not caught up weight wise how parents deal emotionally with having a small child and how they are treated at school and by their peers. Would love to hear some experiences

Thanks

I agree with PBabies, great thread x

Agree a great thread, all I could think of when I had ds at 30 + 6 (pre eclampsia, iugr, 2lb 4oz) was the worst case possibilities but at just turned 3 he seems to be doing brilliantly.

Still very small compared to most of his peers (9th centile last time he was measured) but brilliant language skills and he's really starting to interact with others and stand up for himself with the bigger children.

I do worry about his development still but trying to focus on the positives and let him develop at his own pace.

Lovely to hear of others in a similar situation that are older and thriving!

My DS was born at 34+4 at 3lb 1/2 oz. He stayed on the 2nd centile for weight until quite recently when he turned 6 and has suddenly turned into a very stocky child and you certainly wouldn't think he was prem.
Academically he struggles as he has hypermobility and low muscle tone which no-one can decide if it is due to his prematurity, he just can't sit still. He is bright enough though and if he is interested in a subject will concentrate for ages.
It is so difficult to determine which, if any, of his difficulties are due to his prematurity or 'just him'.
He is a super child though and is always sooo very cheerful (particularly at 5am)!

DS was a 35 weeker. He had caught up size wise by 12 months and is now the tallest in class (though family genes help him here too). No problems at 8 that I would associate with prematurity, though he was 6 before he was able to have just a cold rather than it turning into a chest infection.

My 32 week dd is 9.

She is the second tallest in her class. She is very sporty and has excellent hand eye coordination (they keep trying to get her to join racquet sports clubs).

Academically she's in every top set in her class, an avid reader, and has a great memory. Personality wise she's almost always easy going, makes friends easily, and is quite confident.

She has a slight problem with one eye which may or may not be due to her prematurity but doesn't cause any issues except she wears glasses. She does struggle a little to sit still and has always been really susceptible to sugar but again, don't know for definite why that is. She's got excema which is getting better as she gets older and had very very mild asthma but is generally very healthy.

DD was 32 weeks. Her twin sister was stillborn.

She is now 4. Caught up by 18 months. Very bright, no SENs, average size, nothing to report. :)

I thought I remembered posting on a thread a couple of years ago - that thread was here
DD1 (28 wks, 1lb 14oz, twin brother slightly bigger, only lived for a day) now 16, still has sone knee/joint problems, still disorganised, seems to have stopped growing at around 5ft 3, but filled out a lot.
Did well in GCSEs and currently studying A levels. Tough going for her, doesn't have a great memory and think there might be some processing problems. Still quite emotionally immature for her age.
Hard to tell if anything there due to her shaky start.

Thanks for posting the earlier thread here circular. Interesting read.

On a positive note and talking about motor skills, my tiny iugr baby boy (as mentioned in my earlier post) now 13 months actual /10 and a half months corrected and currently 15.5lb is walking like a trooper. To be honest it's more like a run and he stays on his feet most the time. People keep asking how old he is as they have never seen such a small baby walk. Bless him!! His sister on the other hand just sits on her bottom and looks at him as if he's mad.

My twins were born at 34 weeks, not very early in the prem world.

They were good weight for their gestations (5lb4 & 5lb8) and are now both 50 centile and an average weight and size for their age. They crawled at 11 months (9 corrected), both were walking by 15 months (13 corrected).

My twins were born at 33 weeks. They came home after a month in SCBU, and seemed to stay the same size forever - I think I'm the only person who's ever actually worn out size newborn babygros!

During the first year, they tended to do milestones at the time they'd have done them if they'd arrived at 40 weeks IYSWIM, and at about 10/12 months, put on a growth spurt which brought them up to average size - so the age 3-6 months clothes were virtually unused.

Both have very minor physical disabilities - but they are identical to their father's minor problem, and since he weighed 13 lbs at birth I doubt their prematurity has anything to do with it.

They have both continued to thrive. Now in the first year of GCSEs, both currently predicted a mixture of A's and A*'s.

Best wishes everyone who is currently worrying.

Really interesting to read all these stories.

My dd is a 29 weeker (2lbs 2) severe IUGR. She is now just under 11 months actual. Preciousbabies she is also below the 0.4th centil and following her curve. Currently 12lbs. She was a little hypotonic but in the last couple of weeks is coming on leaps and bounds. Don't think it'll be long until she is crawling. Oh, and although her weight is still below the line, she has suddenly shot up in length from 0.4th to 2nd centile. It was mentioned in passing that they may refer for growth hormone at age 2, but I'm hoping this extra spurt may mean this isn't necessary. I was told we would be offered counselling for dealing with a child with small stature.
precious do you mind me asking how your ds is like with eating? Dd is fine with solids but after suffering with reflux has been a nightmare to get her to drink a bottle.

Nofork- ds was off the charts with his weight, downwards! It seemed like a constant battle with his weight. He was 18ib at one and did not gain alot til after 2. He was refered at my request for tests, but it all came back normal.
He is five now, slim and average height. I think he may have been bigger had he been term,but he is healthy which is the most important thing. It is a worry with the weight though.

Twins born at 27+6, each 2lb 6oz. They were in hospital for 2 months exactly.

Had caught up weight wise and developmentally by 2yrs - except for speech (DS had a bit of a stutter at 3 and was slower to speak than DD but think that was because she did all the talking for him!).

They are now 8. DD probably the brightest in her class. Had a reading age of 11+ at 6yrs old. Very artistic, relatively sporty, absolutely no lasting consequences of her prematurity.

DS - struggled a little more at birth (had to be ventilated) but quickly overtook his sister growth wise etc when he came home. Also in top set at school for all subjects, very sporty, plays for local football and rugby teams. Wears glasses & pretty accident prone, but not necessarily a result of being so early.

Very proud

DS born at 34wks quickly caught up as a baby and now at 14 years old is no different to his peers.He is very disorganised though.DD born at 36wks also fine and has developed as you would expect the only problem being her eyesight.

Sometimes you forget they were ever born early at all.

Hi noforknknife,

We have the exact opposite problem to you with eating. He has around 600mls + per day of high cal infatrini milk but he just nibbles on anything solid and will not be fed with a spoon. I've been advised that the infatrini may be stalling his appetite for solids so we are starting to get him on standard formula. The problem for me is that I'm so anxious about his weight that I stuff him full of milk.

It wasn't always like this : Around 6 months ago we were having huge problems with his bottle. He had bad reflux and didn't want to drink/eat anything. We were at our wits end so went to see a private dr and he put him on a good anti reflux medication that actually works and also put him on the high cal formula. To be honest , it was such a relief that the sickness and pain from the reflux went and he started drinking but it hasn't had a huge effect on his weight gain.

I think that you are lucky that your dd is eating solids as of course that's where her future nutrition will come from. Does she still have the reflux?

I'm seeing a psychologist from the neo natal unit and have been for a while. I suppose we will get round to dealing with the small stature thing soon. I was given such a strong message during my pregnancy that my 2nd twin was "not viable" that ever since he was born I been thinking he won't survive.........anyhow that's another story.

Xx

plenty I think dd will be very lucky to get to 13lbs at actual age 1! Also lots and lots of tests here and everything has always come back ok. But I think they want to do a sweat test for CF soon. I just think that the IUGR preemies are often tiny and don't show the usual catch up growth.

precious Thanks for replying. Dd is on infatrini too, but even when she was drinking it, it made no difference. I think she has a bit of a bottle phobia. She will take it first thing in the mornimg, but cries and pushes it away if she sees it at any other time in the day. She also wont take it in her sleep. . I have been feeding her a yoghurt drink with a straw the last week and she seems to be happy with that.
I can relate to the worry about reducing feeds to get him to take solids. Its been suggested to do similar here (opposite obviously) but I'm too worried about missing out on calories.
Yoghurts are what started her like of solids. She still loves them now. I weaned her at 5 months corrected-right in the middle of reflux hell so this may have made a difference too.

Miaow I have read your posts about your dd. She sounds lovely and always makes me smile. We've had a bit of a developmental spurt since christmas and I can see her making progress. I still worry about any future problems and even a little guilty that we seem to have had a quiet journey.