Baby born at 33 weeks

[OLLY38]

Hi,
My baby was born at 33 weeks, she was 7 weeks early. She is now 5 months corrected age. I'm just wondering with babies development is it slower reaching the milestones.

Hi, my LO was born at 32 weeks exactly. Milestones are based on corrected age rather than actual age. I’ve found that my LO hit their social milestones on the earlier side of the range but motor milestones a bit on the later side, although still within the ‘normal’ window.

My twins were born at 34 weeks all milestones reached.

My DS was born at 34w with IUGR weighing 3lb 12oz. Slow reaching all milestones. Is now a 6ft 15yo

Apart from height, my 33 weekers caught up with everything by 2 years old. Crawled and walked late, but no issues.

My twins were 31 weekers. All milestones met

My 34 weeker was still behind in pretty much everything at 2 but by 4-5 years was exceeding in school/sports.

My 35weeker had pretty much "caught up" by about 18-24 months but was about 20 months when lockdown hit so they struggled a bit with unfamiliar relatives who we'd not had much contact with during that time.
Now at almost 7, they are fairly typical to their peers (potential ASD diagnosis aside) you wouldn't think they were a preemie.

My twins were born at 26 weeks. With premature babies, as I'm sure you've been told, everything goes by their corrected age with the exception of immunisations. So all developmental milestones, size, feeding etc. Some sources will say base weaning off of actual age but I was told that's more late preterm not very premature babies. For example you wouldn't really start weaning a baby born 3 months early when they're 6 months old because developmentally and physically they're only 3 months.

Personally, my twins met most of their milestones by their corrected age with some of them being at the later end of the typical timescale for those things. One of them more than the other had to work on their core strength which is common for preemies. Crawling was around 9 months corrected for one and closer to a year for the other. Walking was 15 months corrected. The one thing they did struggle with was social skills and speech. They didn't say anything by their second birthday except hiya or mama/dada. We sent them to nursery to try and help but it was still slow progress and I would say their talking didn't really take off until after they were 3. Potty training was also much later than usual with one being 3.5 and the other taking until around 4.5.

They're now 5 and getting some help from speech and language just to work on some of their sounds as they started school this year and their teacher recommended a referral just because their speech wasn't always very clear and she struggled a bit to understand them sometimes. But they never stop talking at home and they're sociable albeit a little shy sometimes. They're doing absolutely fine at school and actually seem to find it reasonably easy. They're very clever and their teacher only ever has really positive things to say about them.

I wouldn't go worrying over their milestones. They do get there in the end and it really does go by corrected age. Just be wary of some medical professionals and just people in general not being fully aware of actual and corrected ages. There were many times we had to correct and educate doctors and others because their expectations of our children weren't appropriate for their developmental age.

My 34 weeker reached all milestones and apart from when she was first born she's had no issues.

Thank you everyone so much for replying to my thread. Apologies for the delay in getting back to people. My little one is now 7 months old corrected. She is rolling over both directions, laughing, simling. She is up an all fours rocking back and forth and she recently stared moving on her belly and puts hands up when wants to be lifted up. She is able to sit up by her self when you put her in a seated position. The only thing I'm worried about is she can be very quite. You do hear an odd noise or a sound out of her while playing etc. She turns to loud noises and answers to her name but their is no babbling or gibberish chat. She blows raspberries and her eye contact is good. She loves interacting with us and her brother and it all simles and laughing when she does. My husband says I'm worrying over nothing and there is no need to bring her to anyone.