Development

Caroline - posted on 07/04/2012

My daughter was born 9 weeks premmie, weighed 3 pounds & 11 ounces, stayed in hospital 4 weeks, she had many challenges. She was not able to walk un-assisted, she needed support to sit up, drooled constantly, developmentally delayed, frequent body tremors, some seizure like episodes, kind of in a daze all the time, clenched left hand, choking on her food, speach problems, left side weakness etc. She was elevated on her toes when holding her to walk, she was splinted for a leg brace & they wanted to give her botox, but after researching botox and discovering how it’s made and there were no long term studies I decided against it. Her life was restricted & so was mine ...and it looked this way for the rest of her life ... & mine. I felt hopeless.

We were attending all sorts of treatments and therapies which cost a lot. A friend told me about some special wellness supplements from a particular company, she started taking them in her yogurt, after one week she was up walking un-assisted, it made an immense difference to her brain function, memory, balance, mood & cognition in a short space of time. She began to thrive. I was elated!

I am so grateful to the person that told me about this incredible technology. She now has a life now ….. and so do I. It’s now over 14 yrs later and she continues to take these special nutrients, she has attended normal public schools, she is almost 16, in a few weeks she begins driving lessons and has just started an after school casual job in a fast paced food takeaway. Now she is taller than me.
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Robbie - posted on 08/07/2011

Mine was also 5 weeks early. He is caught up for height (tall, actually) and is on target for the gross motor skills. He just started babbling at almost 11 mos though - so I suspect he will be a little behind verbally. He is also just starting to bang blocks together, which seems on target for his adjusted age. He just wants to go go go and isn't focused on anything but that at the moment. I suspect every baby is different! I will start baby signing at 12 mos or so because that really helped with my other 2 full term children.

Sara - posted on 08/06/2011

My son was 8 weeks early, he's just turned 2 and has caught up and in many ways is ahead of other children his age. Physically he's tall and well built, I'm tall and my husband is a rugby player build so i think that helps! He's talking, can count to 10 and knows the days of the week, which I think is quite advanced. He was definitely behind at First, probably by 6 weeks or so butcaught up between 12-18 months. We were told that for the first year he would probably be behind, So don't worry and don't feel pressured if your baby is behind. It doesn't matter what other children are doing, prems have had a tough start and take a while to adjust. Good luck!

Melissa - posted on 08/05/2011

Not that it is much help, but every baby will be a little different. The NICU referred us to a developmental specialist and that was a source of great comfort to me. We saw the specialist every few months and she evaluated him against the standards for full-term babies AND against the standards for his adjusted age.

Our son was always at or ahead of the milestones for a full term baby as far as gross and fine motor skills were concerned. However, he always lagged at or just behind his adjusted age for verbal skills. To address that issue, we continued seeing the specialist until she "released" him at 2 1/2. We have also worked with Early Childhood Intervention which provided him with free and then low-cost speech therapy. Towards the end of the summer, our local school district will evaluate his speech skills and determine whether he qualifies for additional speech therapy through the school district.

The speech therapist also recommended preschool as a way to help improve his speech so he will be starting three days a week at the end of this month.