When Did your micro Preemie "catch up" with their peirs?

Pam - posted on 10/25/2011

My granddaughter was born at 27 weeks, 1.5lbs and 12inches long.. she was our real life Barbie Doll. She's 9 years old now.
She came home on her original birth date-3 months later on O2. She had Chronic lung disease, her eyes cleared up without surgery, her lungs have healed.. (quite awhile ago) she was on O2 at home for almost 2 years. She got RSV at 3 months.. just before starting her round of shots for the season, got pneumonia after RSV season ended, has had several severe ear infections (hopefully seems to be doing well in that area now). Had speech therapy, motor skills therapy since before she was a year old.. that ended when she started school at 5years, couldn't get the therapy for her in school.. would have helped her to pass 2nd grade the first time, but she's in 3rd now-which is where she would have been had she not been born early.
She didn't start walking, alone, until about 18 -24 months. Didn't smile at anyone until she was a year.. and then only at Mom for the longest time.. She used to have major meltdowns.. would get over stimulated very easily.. Her mother and I were the only people to be able to calm her down.. but when she wanted Mom there was nothing I could do at all. She is close to her peers in size, weight but still below.. she just weighed in at the drs at about 45-47lbs last week. She's very bright but fights learning (what kid doesn't sometimes?)
I've seen preemies-micro preemies catch up to their peers in no time and then others who never do. Gabby can keep up with any of her friends, but she will get very tired sometimes because she is always on the go-even at home.. it took so long for her to talk.. now she doesn't stop..LOL literally.. The thing to remember -most important to any kids development-is that every child learns and improves in their own time, some end up having little reminders that they started out as a preemie.. Gabby still doesn't run and jump as well as she might have if she hadn't been a preemie, but she keeps trying to improve and she is.
I believe that her dr stopped using the corrected age at about 3 years, but it could have 5 yrs-because of her slow growth and weight gain.. and to be honest we don't think about it much.. but when someone tries to compare her to their 'normal' child I always mention that she may not do as well because her system was delayed at birth- but we don't compensate for it.. we try to get her to push herself to catch up, as much as she can each day.. Her meltdowns have almost gone away, but she will still have them occasionally when she's tired and easily confused..
So actually answer the question.. I would say that micro-preemies may appear to 'catch up' with their peers, but there will always be something that will hold them apart.. and it's probable that no one will ever know-except for the parents/care-giver..

Sara - posted on 01/30/2010

My daughter was 27 weeks, 2lbs 1oz. She had a lot of respiratory, and still has Asthma and some chronic nasal issues. By 3 she was caught up in a lot of places except physical endurance. She will be 14 next week. 5' 8" tall, plays club volleyball and is in the top 2% of her class. in the day to day world, it takes forever - but over the span of life, it's only a moment that we think time stands still as our kids work so hard to grow \.

Jeanine - posted on 06/18/2011

I can relate to Ariel Dantzler. I was 26 wks & my son Shane was born 1 lb 12 oz. He had alot of issues & stayed in the NICU for 161 days. He is very behind, but I am not as worried as I was before. 7/15 he will be 2 & only ways 23 lbs. 33 inches. He caught double pnemonia in Jan. recovered & just started crawling all over the place. He can walk w/ me holding 1 hand, not alone & he is just now babling like crazy. We have him going to PT, OT & ST! I truely believe that preemies are so unique. Shane will walk & talk when HE is ready. We can push him & push him, but altimately it is up to him. He eats well, but just has a problem gaining weight fast. He is healthy & happy & I am happy he is here w/ me. That is all I care about. They will all catch up some time or another.

Ashley - posted on 06/19/2010

My boys were born at 24 weeks, 1 lb 11 oz and 1 lb. 14 oz. They stayed in the NICU for 4 1/2 months. They have ROP, CLD, AR, and so many other thing. One was sent home with a NJ tube and oxygen. My one boy started crawling at 10 months ( 6 adj.) the other 11 months (7adj.) ..Standing and cruising 13 months (9adj.) and 12 months (8 adj.) and they just started doing there own first steps just last week 15 months ( 11adj.) They grow up fast and obviously are still 4 months behind but they're young and they are caught right up to there adjusted age. It takes time enjoy it, all preemies and non preemie babies are miracles. ♥

Amy - posted on 01/28/2010

My son was born at 29 weeks and weighed 2lbs 10oz. he is going to be 20 months old next week. We have been through a lot with him, mostly respiratory but so far he has done very well developmentally. we have just completed a major round of evaluations and he has caught up with his full term age group in everything but speech. his speech is really delayed even on a corrected scale. He was a little slow to crawl and walk but it was really only when he was compared to my other 2 full term babies. As a general rule though most preemies, even micro preemies tend to be fully caught up by age 2.hang in there and don't let your worries get you down. She will get there!

Janine - posted on 10/20/2017

My son was born at 29 weeks weighing 2 lbs. 2 ounces. He had no medical problems other than prematurity and a reflux. He is now 8 and is the 10% of height and weight. He is smaller than most kids and I wonder if he will ever catch up to his piers? His father and I are 5’10” and 5’9” respectively. When did your kid start to catch

Janine - posted on 10/20/2017

My son was born at 29 weeks weighing 2 lbs. 2 ounces. He had no medical problems other than prematurity and a reflux. He is now 8 and is the 10% of height and weight. He is smaller than most kids and I wonder if he will ever catch up to his piers? His father and I are 5’10” and 5’9” respectively. When did your kid start to catch

Janine - posted on 10/20/2017

My son was born at 29 weeks weighing 2 lbs. 2 ounces. He had no medical problems other than prematurity and a reflux. He is now 8 and is the 10% of height and weight. He is smaller than most kids and I wonder if he will ever catch up to his piers? His father and I are 5’10” and 5’9” respectively. When did your kid start to catch

Janine - posted on 10/20/2017

My son was born at 29 weeks weighing 2 lbs. 2 ounces. He had no medical problems other than prematurity and a reflux. He is now 8 and is the 10% of height and weight. He is smaller than most kids and I wonder if he will ever catch up to his piers? His father and I are 5’10” and 5’9” respectively. When did your kid start to catch

Janine - posted on 10/20/2017

My son was born at 29 weeks weighing 2 lbs. 2 ounces. He had no medical problems other than prematurity and a reflux. He is now 8 and is the 10% of height and weight. He is smaller than most kids and I wonder if he will ever catch up to his piers? His father and I are 5’10” and 5’9” respectively. When did your kid start to catch up?

Janine - posted on 10/20/2017

My son was born at 29 weeks weighing 2 lbs. 2 ounces. He had no medical problems other than prematurity and a reflux. He is now 8 and is the 10% of height and weight. He is smaller than most kids and I wonder if he will ever catch up to his piers? His father and I are 5’10” and 5’9” respectively. When did your kid start to catch up?

Maria - posted on 07/18/2017

Hi, it's a hit or miss kind of thing. My micro preemie had stage 1&2 but it was corrected on its own. However, every baby is different and you just have to wait and see what happen. Best of luck to you and your little one!

Jennifer - posted on 06/27/2017

So my son was born ast 31 weeks an identical twin w IUGR weighing 1 lb 5 oz and 12 inches long( his brother was 3.1 lbs) was in the NICU for 106 days.. he had no Brian bleeds, no heart issues.. chronic lung desease as most preemies although now no signs of problems.. he weighs about 19-20 lbs his brother is @ 34-35 lbs. He is super active & happy. He eats everything we put in front of him.. he prefers healthy food.. strawberries, yogurt, veggies & meat.. juice to milk of course.. he brother will eat any junk food chips, chocolate, ice cream etc.. my small boy had a feeding tube for the 1st 10 months of his life till we decided after the final time that week he had pulled out his ng tube we give him a trial to see if he would drink enough to stay off it... (after the 'feeding team' thought he wasn't ready to even though he would vomit after EVERY FEEDING Tube drop).. we gave the kid a break.. and kept him off it.. in our opinion he is doing well.. running circles around his brother & other toddlers his age. The doctors are pressuring us to put a g tube in him bc they say he has ' failure to thrive' & isn't gaining the weight he needs to.. if he was ' severely malnourished ' why is he running around & active .. yes he is small but not sick not tired.. I don't get it??? He is a healthy happy smaller boy.. I believe he will catch up in his own time.. forcing food into his little body will only make him eat less & then we will face a whole set of ' new' problems. My momma gut tells me to stick w my heart and let him be.. the doctors are trying to bend my will & make me feel like I'm a terrible mom.. please anyone who has been through this help me.. I want to do the best for my son but can't imagine a g tube for a boy that eats better than his bigger brother is the right answer.. btw my boys are 2 & 1/2 .. both running, wreastling, talking laughing & being naughty 😊 Doing all age appropriate things..

Reshma - posted on 09/04/2013

Do any of your preemie's have stranger anxiety? My lil one hates being around strangers but is otherwise an active healthy bright 14 month old ( corrected)

Patience - posted on 08/31/2013

My preemie crawled at eight months and walked at ten months

Lorna - posted on 10/04/2012

I am the proud grandmother of a micro-preemie grandson born at 26 weeks, weighing 1 lb, 11ozs. He was hospitalized for the first 6 mos, due to respiratory problems. He continued on oxygen until he was a lil over 7 mos. He began holding his bottle and rolling over 2 wks after he came home. He is now 10 1/2 mos sitting up, can say his first word "bye bye" and wave. He still keeps his legs and arms stiff at times but, loves standing up. I work with him daily on working his muscles, teaching him the mouth, nose and eyes, singing nursery rhymes, counting and the alphabets. He doesn't show any signs of wanting to crawl and actually hates being on the floor on his stomach. However, I still put him on his knees and work with him. He enjoys standing and will even take steps when holding his hands. I'm enjoying watching him blossom on his own terms!

Lupe - posted on 09/09/2012

MY son was a micro preemie born at 25 weeks. Does anyone know if his vision will improve? He has ROP and has had a few surgeries.

Lupe - posted on 09/09/2012

My son walked, crawled and talked not too long after the average baby, however mico-preemies as do other babies all develop differently. My son, now that he is 8 years old, still doesn't run and he is still not wearing the average kid, 8 years old, size clothes. He too has had surgery in his eyes for ROP, and his vision has not improved as the years pass. My hope is that one day, his vision it will stop getting worse.

Melissa - posted on 10/24/2011

My son was 29 weeks and weighed 2 lb 8 oz. He has done really well and hasn't ever even had pneumonia despite the chronic lung disease. Even as well as he has done.. he didn't start crawling till 15 days before he turned 1. And he started walking at 16 months. He was finally caught up on everything except speech by 2. Now he's 3 and you'd never know he was a micropreemie. But you have to remember, even healthy fullterm babies develop at different times. With his size, he was in the 16% by 4 months, 18% by 6 months, and 23% by 1. He stayed around the 18th-20th% until his 3 year appt and he was in the 53rd%.

Jayce - posted on 04/05/2011

My son was a 25 weeker. He's 3 now and for the most part he's caught up to his peers. I think he's a little less mature than his age group but that may be because he's an only and isn't around a lot of other kids.

He was 12 months corrected when he crawled, 16 months corrected when he walked (the normal age for term babies to walk is between 12-16 months). His talking really took off at the age of 2 (actual). All of a sudden his vocabulary expanded and he was talking in sentances. Once he started he never stopped. I noticed in the last few weeks he's developed a stutter but I'm told this is normal and not to sweat it. As for size, he's caught up to and passed most of his peers. People keep telling me he's tall for his age (he's 3'3" and 38 lbs).

I was told at the preemie follow-up clinic that we go to that some doctors are now saying that it may take some preemies and especially micro-preemies up to 6 years to truly catch up to their peers. In fact the doctors that my son sees at the clinic still use his corrected age (I stopped at 18 months and our family doctor stopped at 12 months) and will continue to do so until he is 6 years old.

Erin - posted on 04/05/2011

My baby boy was born at 23 weeks 4 days weighing 1 lb 8oz and 12" long. He starting crawling around 12 months ( adjusted age 8 months) and walking around 18 months (adjusted 14 months). We worked with Early On in Kent county and had a physical therapist come once a month to help with his "high tone"definition. He is now 3 1/2 years old, goes to preschool and keeps up with his older brother. The general rule of thumb was preemies caught up around 2, but I was told a good indicator, especially with the micro preemies is to use how many months they are premature. So, my son was 4 months early, so he should start catching up between 3 and 4 years of age.

Marcia - posted on 04/02/2011

I'm a grandmom who was the primary care giver of my million $ miracle(26 wks/ 1lb. 14 oz.) She is now a 2 and 1/2 yr old. Healthy, Happy, Social Diva!. Her speech far surpasses her 4 yr old cousin and I'm not a partial grand mom.Her brother will be born in a few weeks at term.

Karen - posted on 06/05/2010

My son Eddie was 24 weeks, was 1 lb 11oz. He's almost 10 now and he's a blessing. He was diagnosed with Rop but didn't need surgery and chronic lung disease, he still takes inhalers but some children don't need inhalers. He had a tracheostomy until about 3 years old. He crawled around 9 months, stood around 12 months, walked for the first time before his 2nd birthday and didn't really talk until 3 years (because of the trach) He had alot of early intervention and special needs classes. By Kindergarten he started catching up with weight, etc. I praised him for every accomplishment. He's come along way. I can't believe now he's almost 10, about 75 pounds and about 4 feet 8... Your daughter is a true blessing, enjoy every minute..

Kylie - posted on 06/02/2010

My son had defied all the odds. He is 13 months actual now, 10 months corrected. He was born at 27 weeks and weighed 1lb 7oz. Joseph had a diagnosis of Chronic Lung Disease, but appears to have either been misdiagnosed, or grown out of it.

We were very lucky he didn't get ROP, he does see opthalmology every 6 months as he had a suspected squint but it looks like that has gone too.

The worst thing was he had NEC in his first weeks of life, and we were told the damage was probably irrepairable and he would need a PEG tube for feeding. But he overcame that, and he eats better than most one year olds I know!

He now sits up, (start at 11 months) he rolls everywhere, can commando crawl, but he doesn't walk yet. He's started saying the odd word, and will copy words.

Just enjoy your teenie girl and she will get there in her own time. I feel so much pride in my son, and he's so amazing the way he just gets on with it!

Brandy - posted on 05/31/2010

where are you from ariel? my daughter was 2lbs 6oz and she qualified for ssi for low birth weight, shes now 15months and 17lbs and she still qualifies. how big was your first at 15 months?

Sarah - posted on 05/30/2010

my pediatrician says that it is a year for every month of prematurity. My daughter was born at 31 weeks, so she should be caught up developmentally by age 2. But, like every milestone, it's a range, not a definate number. In size she is allready caught up, (at 6 months she was caught up for size) but she still has a motor skill delay. My pediatrician was amazed at her growth and I honestly believe it is because she was breastfed and I make all of her baby food at home, not store bought. It's not that hard and the child LOVES the food. It actually does taste good!

User - posted on 05/29/2010

I think there is a big difference in a 1 lb baby and a 2 lb baby. In 2007 I had a daughter @ 29 wks weighing 2 lbs 9 oz and my newest daught born 2008 was 1 lb 4 oz. I was able to get SSI with my 1 lb baby and not the 2 lb baby. They dont consider them to have the issues a low birth weight baby has. My 1 lb baby will be 2 yrs old n dec and is only about 12 lbs. They say it is due to her COPD condiction and I have no idea when she will catch up. She doesnt crawl, talk or walk, she only can roll over and lift a head but not for to long. She goes to therapy once a week and I do some at home but see little results. I have her on high calories and give her the most fattning foods I can find. She won't eat real food and not even stage 3 foods. I worry about her and Im doing my best but I really look to web sites to answerwhat my doctor has not.

Kerrie - posted on 01/30/2010

I think I have a unique situation. My son was a 28 weeker and although he is still small (36 lbs) at 7 years old, he is way above most of the kids in school. He is in 1st grade and reads at a 3rd - 4th grade level, same in math. He reached all of his milestones on time (not by his adjusted age) and talked way ahead of time (and hasn't stopped yet! lol) My best friend had a 25 weeker and she is 14 now and on the honor roll and right on target. She caught up really quickly, too. By 2 if I remember correctly. Every child has their own pace so don't rush it, enjoy it! They don't stay this young and cute forever!

Rebecca - posted on 01/29/2010

My micropreemie was a 29 weeker, growth restricted due to pre-eclampsia and weighed 1lb 11oz. She developed Chronic Lung Disease and is still super tiny (at 13 months-10 corrected she just now weighs 13lb 6oz), but developmentally she is right on track. She is at actual age for gross motor development and social/emotional development, and in between corrected and actual age for everything else. Speech is lagging behind the others, but is still ahead for corrected age.



If you have concerns, I would suggest that you contact your local Early Intervention office. I've had EI since Lily came home from the hospital and they have been a HUGE help in supporting her development.

Sara - posted on 01/29/2010

My daughter was a 26 weeker, and about a pound bigger. She did not truely catch up to her peers until she was about 3yrs. She is now 10yrs. and one of the tallest in her class at almost 5 feet tall now. They don't all stay tiny.