If you had a premature baby, did your baby have problems?

amother

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 8:54 am

If you had a premature baby, did your baby suffer from cerebral palsy, cognitive delays or disabilities? How premature was your baby?

My second cousin just gave birth to a one-pounder and I want to know what the chances of her having problems are.

bigsis144

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 9:03 am

I was born six weeks early, at 4 pounds. I think I turned out okay. Smile

I think there's a term for the ultra-preemies who are much smaller and have a younger gestational age, I just don't remember what it is. I know that for many preemies, their early milestones are counted according to their gestational age, so they'd be "catching up" developmentally for a while.

amother

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 9:08 am

You should MYOB.

Your cousin will address the issues when they come up with the advice from Drs not Yentas. How does knowing what the trauma another mother went through help? You would dreg up some terrible memories for your own curiosity. Do research - don't ask someone to visit their pain.

I opened this thread because I thought a mother needed support and I was willing to discuss what I went through.

Jughead

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 10:28 am

I agree with amother above
unless your cousin invites your questions, MYOB
other people's experiences aren't going to help her at this point. it's possible her child will not have any difficulties - why should she worry about everything that could possibly happen?
whatever you do - do NOT get her The Premature Baby Book.
worst thing I did after my preemies were born was to read that.
scared the living daylights out of me

Mama Bear

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 10:50 am

Micropreemies definitely have delays. They need lots of therapy - OT, PT, Speech, often feeding therapy. However, in the long term many of them going on to be perfectly fine. Things like CP, ROP etc cannot be detected immediately anyway. Just be there for her and dont ask questions.

NotInNJMommy

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 11:13 am

My son was 10 weeks early, but he was a good size bh for that age and bh had no birth defects.

He caught up to developmental milestones within a few months except for fine motor skills, which followed his corrected age more.

He has some very mild ADHD symptoms, but no learning disabilities, etc. He got glasses in first grade and has a lazy eye, but so did/does his father. I also got glasses at 10 yrs old, so none of that might be because of the prematurity. The neonatologists can speak to probabilities, things to monitor, etc. BH they know a lot more about preemies these days and can mitigate many risks or concerns with the right therapies and monitoring.

I just remember starting small with my concerns as a mother: is he breathing, digesting food, regulating his temperature, eating from a bottle, etc. Those things come first.

bnm

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 12:37 pm

my neighbor has micropreemie twins, one has cp but that's probably more related to his issues in utero, the other one is 'normal'. both are in a regular classroom. both get therapy but then again their full term siblings also got speech/ot at that age.

amother

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 12:39 pm

I was born at 7 months and weighed 3 pounds was in a incubator for some time and the only issue I know of was they found a cist on my pancreas when I was 14 and had to have major surgery for it and they said it had been there since birth which was probably true as I had suffered from many stomach aches as a child with no cause

imamiri

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 1:13 pm

My DD was one day shy of 25 weeks. She's now 3 years old. We spent 4 months in the NICU which was unpleasant to say the least. It's a very difficult place.

As for long lasting problems, DD has gross motor issues. She's still not fully running and having problems with balance. No dx of CP though, but she has some lingering hypertonia in her legs.

She also has some sensory issues relating to other people. She's not bothered by people she knows well, as in sees pretty much every day, come close to her (giver her a hug, touch her arm or just stand close). But people she either does not know or not well? No way. She flips out, cries, etc. if they come too close.

She had some expressive speech delays but those have been addressed and she's back up to speed.

Every preemie, especially micropreemie, faces different challenges. Some are more long-lasting than others. The good news is that the amount of therapies available (PT, OT, ST) and the amount of research that is constantly happening is helping specialists figure out and address the challenges early.

Liba

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 2:08 pm

Having a child with special needs has taught me how little control we have over the outcome. There are many many full term babies who chv"sh have special needs and many many preemies who are just fine. The littlest ones often need extra therapies and support in the beginning, but only the minority B"H have long term issues.

Last edited by Liba on Sun, Apr 28 2013, 4:49 pm; edited 1 time in total

Raisin

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 2:16 pm

imamiri wrote:

Not everyone lives in a place with good OT, ST and PT services. Sad

I know this because my full term hefty sized baby needed them. No guarantees either way, premature or not. But it is obviously much more likely that a very premature baby will need extra help.

imamiri

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 4:45 pm

Raisin wrote:

imamiri wrote:

Not everyone lives in a place with good OT, ST and PT services. Sad

I know this because my full term hefty sized baby needed them. No guarantees either way, premature or not. But it is obviously much more likely that a very premature baby will need extra help.

This is true. I'm sorry if you had a hard time getting services. Sad

shiffycc

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 8:35 pm

Op did not say she was just curious. It could be that her cousin wants to hear about it. There are other explanations for why she asked too. C'mon ladies, try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Even if she is lacking the sensitivity to know what we've been through(did you REALLY understand before your preemie was born??), you have a unique opportunity to educate her on how to support her cousin and not make things harder for her.

be good

Sun, Apr 28 2013, 8:58 pm

my 29 weeker is a year and a half, ka"h.

a tiny little person, who has met all milestones on time, without any therapy yet.

runs, climbs, has a 50+ word vocab, strings 2 words together, follows commands like 'throw this in the garbage', can stack blocks... baruch Hashem.

He Who makes the baby a preemie, can also prevent the issues.

karen berzon

Wed, May 01 2013, 4:22 am

My son was a micro-preemie born at 26 weeks. He weighed less than a pound and a half. B"H we saw tremendous nissim. He was hospitalized for 4 plus months and home hospitalized for almost another four, hooked up to stuff. Each case is so individual. My son had emergency surgery in the incubator and they removed most of his intestines. He also has CP. But there are kids born that early that are fine or have slight issues. I personally do not suggest reading the books.

amother

Fri, May 03 2013, 1:01 am

karen berzon wrote:

Thanks for the replies. My cousin's baby weighed one pound at birth, so I won't say anything because I don't want to scare her.

I just don't understand why there are problems when we have incubators.