Preemie Height and Weight Development Stages

No parent hopes for their precious baby to arrive before the pregnancy has gone full term, but unfortunately it is more common than not for a woman to give birth after the 30 week mark, but before 37 weeks, which is full term. When a baby is born pre-maturely, a lot of problems and issues can come into play. Internal organs, including the babies lungs, and brain may not have been completely developed before birth. However, with today's medical technology, babies are able to survive in these cases. Once the baby has been released from the hospital after passing all health requirements in order to be released from the doctor's care, the questions don't stop there.

It's hard enough when life doesn't hand a new parent an instruction manual, but even harder when a parent is experiencing something possibly very different from anyone they know, and can't get great advice. Thankfully, the internet is a great source of information today and the type of information a new mom might need can be found and lead to comfort.

When questioning if your pre-mature baby is on target for weight and height is difficult to figure out, it's not impossible. The hospital will not usually let a parent take their baby home if the baby is less than 4lbs or before the 36 week gestational age mark. You probably won't have a baby scale at home and will be concerned if the baby is losing weight, especially if the baby is having trouble with formula or even breastfeeding. A preemie will most likely not weigh the same as a full term baby who was born at 40 weeks, so you will need to take that into account when trying to see if your baby is on target for his or her age. Most babies in utero put on around 1 ounce per day, there for if a baby is born 30 days early at 36 weeks, the baby will most likely be around 2lbs less then he or she would have been at 40 weeks. The average weight for full-term babies is between 5 -10lbs. So, even the smallest of full term babies would have been 2.5-3 lbs if born a month early. The average height for a full-term baby is between 18-23 inches at birth. Babies usual grow approximately 1 inch a month, so a pre-mature baby might be an inch or more behind depending on how early he or she was born.

A pre-mature baby will gain weight and height at the same speed as a baby in utero, which should be comforting. Because of this fact, the baby will weight and grow to what he or should weigh at the 40 weeks gestational age. When comparing a pre-mature baby to a full term baby, the weight and height will be a little different throughout at least the first half of the birth year. Therefore, having two 6 month old babies, one who was born at 32 weeks, and one that was born at 40 weeks, the full term baby might be a couple of inches taller, and a few pounds heavier. The pre-mature baby might represent the size of a 4.5 month old baby. The good news is," 85% of premature infants have catch-up growth and land on the regular growth chart by 2 years of age." (www.comeunity.com)