Preemie Milestones

Hi, My son was 6 weeks early, now 4. he is in preschool and one of the tallest in his class. he is not skinny nor chubby. but thick, especially in the chest area (like a miniature football player lol). as far as growing, he has caught up with his peers. but mind is maybe a month behind everyone else. he has been bout a month to three months behind his age range for everything, walking, speaking, doing stuff independently. they do catch up, it just takes awhile, since when they are born early, their body has to sometimes play catch up on basic organs to finish developing. it will come. you can't push tho let it happen when it happens

My son was born at 32 weeks and he is now 3.5 and he is still a little behind. He is still very small for his age but has reached many of his milestones just a few months behind the "normal" range. My son is in the 3rd percentile for height and weight but has continued in that range since he was 1 year. He will check up- give it some time.

My trips were born at 34 weeks. The nurses told me they would catch up by the time they were 5 or so. I guess they decided not to wait that long. Barring any health issues, your little one will catch up. It may take time and everyone is different. I totally agree with Amy, give it time and enjoy.

I had twins that were 9 1/2 weeks early. They are totally different with the "milestones". They are just over 5 months old now and he has been smiling for 2 1/2 months now and just started to roll from back to tummy. She started to smile about a month ago, no rolling but is grabbing at toys and putting them in her mouth. I honestly believe now, that every baby is defferent. I like to follow the charts but I don't read so deeply into them. I guess I will find out today how they are doing, early intervention is coming.

Hi S.!

Are you using his corrected age when you say he is 14 weeks old now?

My daughter was a 34 weeker. She was a tiny bit behind by using her corrected age but if I was to go for the day to day age from the time she was born she was REALLY behind until close to a year old and slowly started to catch up and still is working at it.

At 2 years when they no longer use the corrected age she was eligible for services through Early Intervention for speech and occupational therapy. At 19 months she was only eligible for OT though. Confusing to me how they determine the services.

If you and your Dr feel there is delays definately contact your local EI and have them evaluate her for free. If you recieve services it is on a sliding scale based on your income and family size. Definately a wonderful program that has helped my daughter tremendously!

Good luck and blessings to you! Let us know what happens!

Definately ask your pediatrician about referring him to be evaluated through EI. We evaluated preemies all the time. Like the PP said we correct their age until two(so you would be expecting him to meet the milestones more on track for 2 months right now). But for peace of mind the therapists can come out and tell you where he is at and keep an eye on him if needed. You would refer to CFC 15 ###-###-####.I'm a PT through EI so if you want to ask me any specific questions feel free to send me a message!

My daughter was born at 31 weeks. She is now 1 year old. I felt the same way as you did. At 6 months I felt she was far behind, but the dr said she was fine for her "corrected" age. At her 1 year check-up, she has already caught up a lot. By the time she is 2, I think she will be fully caught up. As the other moms said, she's still small on the chart, but she's a miracle! We did begin physical therapy around 6 months which has been a big help with helping her catch up. Check out the March of Dimes website for more info. Good luck!