“Do preterm babies always have late development issues?”
My baby was a premature baby and was in the incubator for 3 weeks. Will it delay her developmental milestones?
5 Answers
not always. being 3 weeks early is not always associated with developmental delay. Most infants born at this gestation have minimal developmental delay. Your doctor should make this assessment or you can ask to be followed at a developmental followup program.
Depending on prematurity, 34-36-week baby will catch up pretty good by one year.
Not always; sometime. Developmental assessment in the NICU and afterwards, and follow-up may help detect problems ealry; and Early Intervention program referral may help.
Nicole Rouvinez Bouali
Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Specialist | Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Ottawa, On
Most preterm infants actually have a normal life, with fully normal or near normal neuro-development, and this will likely be the case if your baby needed an incubator for only 3 weeks. Things that may affect long term development are severe suffering around the time of birth, documented severe brain lesions (severe bleed or lesions due to lack of oxygen), severe post-natal disease like severe infection or necrotizing enterocolitis (a severe complication at the level of the gut), or the need for prolonged mechanical ventilation. Developmental impairement risk is inversely proportional to the degree of prematurity, and is more significant in preterm infants below 29 weeks of gestational age. After that age, the risk of long term problems is much less, even though the risk of cerebral palsy (motor problems) is still slighlty increased up to 36 weeks gestational age compared to full term babies, in which it is extremely rare.
Your family physician or pediatrician will follow routinely your child developmental milestones. If there were any problem with your child's development, he/she will refer you to physiotherapy, ergotherapy or a speech specialist, which will maximize the chances of your baby to reach his/her full developmental potential. but again, if your baby only needed an incubator and no other life-sustaining support, the likelihood is that she/he will be perfectly fine!
Have fun with your baby!
Your family physician or pediatrician will follow routinely your child developmental milestones. If there were any problem with your child's development, he/she will refer you to physiotherapy, ergotherapy or a speech specialist, which will maximize the chances of your baby to reach his/her full developmental potential. but again, if your baby only needed an incubator and no other life-sustaining support, the likelihood is that she/he will be perfectly fine!
Have fun with your baby!
Her developmental progress, and growth should be based on postmenstrual age (chronological age minus weeks premature). It doesn’t mean that she’s delayed. It just takes some time to catch up.
