s/o if your preemie was delayed, was an underlying issue discovered or was it transient?

[Anonymous]

This is unscientific, but my preemie has been delayed across the board and is now facing speech delays. I am lining up an appointment with a dev ped, but I hear stories all the time of preemies who had transient delays. Does anyone have any experience to share on this? If there is an issue, I just want to get hi the help he needs. I am just not sure how much wiggle room I should be giving him for being premature.

[Anonymous]

How early was your preemie? I think the whole caught up by 2 years thing is kind of silly, especially for fairly early preemies.

My preemie was delayed in motor milestones. He hit them based on his adjusted age like clockwork.

[Anonymous]

How premature was he? What was the reason for his prematurity? Those are important questions to have a better understanding on the prognosis. I know many preemies who had delays but eventually (usually by the time they were around 5 years old) caught up. Others continues to show delays and were ultimately diagnosed with ADHD/ASD, etc. It's hard to tell early on.

[Anonymous]

Six weeks, unknown reason. He has been delayed based on his adjusted age.

[Anonymous]

Anyone? I feel like I always hear from preemie moms on this board...

[Anonymous]

My preemie was speech delayed and also delayed in fine motor/motor planning skills. He was caught up in speech by age 3. In motor skills, I guess by age 5 I'd say he was on the low side of normal--and I wouldn't be surprised if that is where he stayed forever. I don't think he'll ever be he most coordinated person around. All that aside, he is a hilarious, bright, sweet, outgoing, and loving kid who does great at school and has tons of friends.

[Anonymous]

Short answer: Be vigilant and follow up with your ped! Mine has serious underlying issues.

Long answer:

DS was a 32 week preemie.
Officially diagnosed with global developmental delays at 9 months, but he was delayed since birth.
Started treatment with MoCo Infants and Toddlers at 14 months: speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, "play therapy".
Just before three, went to a social-skills preschool readiness group organized by Infants and Toddlers. Booted out of Infants and Toddlers at 3, even though they acknowledged that he was not caught up (just not delayed enough to qualify for Child Find).
At 3, started Montessori preschool, where he had significant problems with expressing himself and following directions. Diagnosed with ADHD, inattentive, at 6.
Started public elementary school where he repeated Kindergarten to accommodate his delays and was given an IEP by the school to get free speech therapy at school.

He's now 8. He skipped a grade to get back with his peers and is bored intellectually, but has difficulty with oral and written expression, plus he is excruciatingly slow and does not understand social rules. We suspect he actually has what used to be called Asperger's (high-functioning autism, even though autism was ruled out when he was a toddler). Will get him a full neurosych eval. as soon as we can afford it.

[Anonymous]

Former 29w now 3.

It's still really unclear.
Gross motor: was significantly delayed with high tone and low tone. Walked at 18m after a year of PT. Since then has really caught up and has typical skills.
Fine motor: was moderately delayed and is now typical, maybe even advanced with no interventions.
Speech: was moderately delayed, now scores in in typical range after about 6m of therapy, but her SPL feels she still has some atypical issues that need attention.
Cognitive: was perhaps mildly delayed when her age was adjusted, and now is typical for her chronological age with no intervention
Social/emotion: has always been quite strong

So that's all good, but two professionals who I really trust have independently suggested that they think she does have issues that aren't showing up in testing that deserve further attention. It seems to me like she has some combo of sensory issues/anxiety, but that is stuff that runs in my family, so it's unclear if her issues are genetics or prematurity.

So that's the long answer. I think the short answer is some kids grow out of it and some kids don't and it is a hard call as a parent to know whether you should wait it out or get services. We have taken both approaches at different times-relying on professionals we trust and our own hunches to make the call.

[Anonymous]

My 34-weeker had delays across the board. Diagnosed with autism at age 3. Intensive therapy is making all the difference. Steady improvement in all areas. Quite possible that DC could someday "outgrow" his diagnosis. One thing I am sure of is that diagnosis or not, DC needs all this therapy right now. DC is SO happy to be able to draw/jump/make a joke/etc. Therapy made it happen!

[Anonymous]

Saddens me to read this thread.
Mine was 36 weeks but had severe IUGR was only 4 lbs. Had delays in physical, speech, language, OT, social, sensory, feeding. Possible HFA. Has caught up on everything at 6 years of age with therapy services. Still has food allergies and some anxiety.
But it was tough all those years and I had only myself to blame. Would break my heart every time I saw a full term baby. I really dont know if I could have done things differently to avoid the pre-eclampsia, and really how much of this is due to preterm birth.

Sorry to be so negative, but it all works out in the end. I do think it is transient.

[Anonymous]

Oh and lot of full term kids also have these delays, though not sure what the ratio is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Saddens me to read this thread.
Mine was 36 weeks but had severe IUGR was only 4 lbs. Had delays in physical, speech, language, OT, social, sensory, feeding. Possible HFA. Has caught up on everything at 6 years of age with therapy services. Still has food allergies and some anxiety.
But it was tough all those years and I had only myself to blame. Would break my heart every time I saw a full term baby. I really dont know if I could have done things differently to avoid the pre-eclampsia, and really how much of this is due to preterm birth.

Sorry to be so negative, but it all works out in the end. I do think it is transient.

Please don't blame yourself for pre-eclampsia or for your child's delays. So much of life is out of our control.