Prem baby milestones may vary significantly from full-term babies. Prem baby development can affect the baby's ability to breathe, eat, stay warm, react to stimuli, digest and eliminate normally.
If you ask a parent whose baby was born full term to recall the date of their baby’s various milestones, I’m sure most will be able to recall an awful lot of their baby’s milestones with a fair amount of accuracy.
If you ask the parent of a baby who was prem and spent several months in NICU the same question I have no doubt that all of these parents will be able to recall their baby’s milestones with perfect accuracy.
The reason I say this is because parents mark their baby’s milestones, however prem babies who have spent time in NICU will have momentous milestones, that’s not to say I belittle full term baby milestones because I don’t.
Parents of full term babies could never comprehend the struggles, the stress the highs and lows of life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
When a prem baby comes off their ventilator it’s such a mammoth milestone that the baby’s parents cannot help but recall the exact date and often the time that their little one started breathing unaided.
Milestones such as when baby comes off CPAP, when baby no longer requires a Nasal Cannula or when baby no longer needs to be tube fed.
Premature baby milestones may vary significantly from full-term babies. Premature baby development can affect the baby's ability to breathe, eat, stay warm, react to stimuli, digest and eliminate normally.
All of the above would have had more time to develop if the baby had not been born prematurely. To monitor growth and development, premature baby milestones are based not on when the baby was born, but on the baby's original due date.
So please next time you meet a parent of a premature baby remember it’s not just that their baby was born earlier or smaller, but also that their baby might have had to fight for life itself. Comments such as oh isn’t he small or isn’t he sitting up yet are not only thoughtless they are hurtful.
Count your blessing that you baby has not had to spend the first several months of his or her life in NICU.
If you or a loved one has a premature baby in NICU then please visit our premature baby store at http://www.prem2pram.co.uk
Not all premature baby clothes are created equally
No don’t panic there are a few on line shops that care more about their customers requirements than their profit margin. One such shop is Prem2Pram who stock not only premature baby clothes in sizes from 0lbs upwards but who also stock NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) safe incubator clothing
Premature babies and the risk of hypoxia
Hypoxia: inadequate amount of oxygen reaching the body (generalised hypoxia) or a region of the body (tissue hypoxia). At Prem2Pram we stock practical and affordable premature baby clothes and essential premature baby accessories including NICU dummies suitable for use with CPAP and for those babies being tube fed.
