Development of baby born at 33 weeks

[Farmmama]

My baby is 7.5 weeks and was born at 33 + 2 weeks. He is fine now and I have no concerns, but just wondering if anyone else who had a baby born at this gestation can share their experiences in terms of development and weight gain etc. Thanks 😃

Congratulations . My dts were born at 30 weeks, their development was corrected up until their 2nd birthday, by which time there was no real difference between them and other children, both in weight and development.

Congratulations! My DS was born at 34+2. He hit all his milestones and there’s no concerns about him developmentally, but he’s always been on the light side. Now that he’s 4, he’s quite tall but still skinny (not a bad problem to have). Otherwise, no issues.

Ds was a little bit later than yours - 34 weeks. I agree with pp that by 2, he had totally caught up. And actually everything that mattered caught up before that, it was just that his weight took a little longer which I suspect was down to his dairy allergy as much as anything else.

My son was born at 31+5. He was a good weight for his gestation, and only need a bit of breathing support for the first couple of hours. Took to feeding very quickly, so was really in special care to put on weight and be able to maintain his own temperature. He came home after 16 days.
No significant issues with his development - he progressed in line with his prematurity (i.e. hitting milestones about 2 months “late”). The prem clinic discharged him aged 1 (corrected). He was up to the 50th centile by six months (corrected).
He is now 6, and the only issue he has is chronic constipation - this may or may not be related to his prematurity, it is very difficult to tell. He also finds it very hard to focus e.g. on schoolwork, but this could be a personality thing as much as anything else! But he is a bright boy and doing well, despite his early entrance into the world.

My oldest was 32 weeks and developmentally fine, talked a bit late and started walking 20 months but shes 5 now and doing great at school.
We had 5 chest infections last year which needed overnight stays because of asthma which may be related but none this year so hoping its improving with age.

DD2 was 28 weeks, piled on weight from about 8 months but was slow until then, shes now nearly 2 and a very sturdy tall toddler now.
Shes very sociable and interactive, but doesn't have any proper words or understanding of words yet so we have to communicate with gestures along with words to be understood. Her the speech therapist isn't concerned about it and thinks she just needs a bit more time as everything else shes caught up with. She walked at 16 months so not particularly late. Again she has asthma which has meant 4 admissions with croup this year but otherwise healthy.

@teaandhobnobs my oldest also has continuous issues with constipation, hadn't twigged to that being possibly related!

DD2 is lactose intolerant too but shes handling small amounts better as she gets older so hopefully that's just another thing that will improve with age.

My DD was born at 32 weeks, she didn’t start smiling until 6 weeks corrected but had caught up size wise by 6 months (she was a very hungry baby!). She crawled around 8 months and was right on target at her 9-12 month development review. They did it based on her actual age.