PT can be an essential aspect of your premature baby’s health plan. This means I expect him to be performing milestones that are typical for that of a 2 week old baby. When assessing Sio, however, I correct for his prematurity. These are typical milestones for a 3 month old baby.
If I were to assess bebe Kirabo’s motor skills right now, for example, I would expect to see emerging head control and reaching skills. When I assess a baby, I always correct for prematurity when evaluating motor skills. We continue to correct for prematurity for at least the first 2 years of life. For this reason, we correct/adjust for prematurity to more accurately reflect how the baby is doing and what to watch for.Ĭorrecting for prematurity is important to set realistic expectations, track growth and development, and identify potential delays.
CALCULATE CHRONOLOGICAL AGE FULL
They can’t (and shouldn’t!) be expected to perform or develop along the same timeline as a full term baby. Good question! When a baby is born preterm, there is a lot of growing and developing that still needs to occur in their brains and nervous systems, and this dictates a baby’s sensory and motor development. When he was 10 weeks old chronologically, his PMA was 40 weeks. For example, Sio was born at 30 weeks gestation. It refers to the age of the baby since conception, including gestational age and chronological age. Post-menstrual age (PMA): this is most commonly used during the perinatal period (the weeks immediately before and after birth) and is rarely used outside of the NICU setting. Sio was born 10 weeks preterm, so we calculate his corrected age like this: 3 months (12 weeks) - 10 weeks = 2 weeks. In our example, Kirabo was born full term so does not have a corrected age. The formula looks like this: chronological age - weeks of prematurity = corrected age.
Sio is also 3 months old chronologically.Ĭorrected age: also commonly referred to as adjusted age, this is where things get tricky! Corrected age is when we take prematurity into consideration, and subtract the baby’s weeks or months of prematurity from their chronological (actual) age. In our example, Kirabo’s chronological age is 3 months. It is the actual number of days, weeks, or months that have passed since your baby was born, irrespective of prematurity. Sio was born preterm, making his gestational age 30 weeks.Ĭhronological age: this is the easiest age to calculate, and the way most of us count how old we are. In our example, Kirabo was born full term, so her gestational age was 40 weeks. Gestational age: this is how many weeks were completed in pregnancy, from conception to delivery. Now, let’s break down the definitions of commonly used terms to describe age: Sio was born 10 weeks preterm at 30 weeks. Kirabo and Sio were born on the same day, and they are both 3 months (or 12 weeks) old today! Kirabo was born full term at 40 weeks. To helps us make sense of calculating ages in preemies, we are going to enlist the help of my theoretical bebe friends, Kirabo and Sio (they are characters in my latest fave book, if you must know!). And yes, these are the actual medical terms. A baby born between 32-27 weeks is categorized as moderate-late preterm, 28-32 weeks is considered very preterm, and less than 28 weeks is extremely preterm. Any baby born at less than 37 weeks is considered preterm. A full term pregnancy is typically 40 weeks, give or take a couple of weeks. These dates will help us calculate ages and keep track of timelines for our preemie friends.īut let’s make sure we are all on the same page to start with by defining prematurity. Knowing the intricacies of your baby’s age(s) is crucial for optimizing care, setting realistic expectations, and identifying delays and need for intervention. I’ll go into more detail about developmental risks and strategies to support premature babies in future posts, but for now I’m going to break down the importance of understanding age. Due to advances in medical care, babies are able to survive at younger ages, but there are certain developmental and health risks that come with prematurity that are important to be aware of. Therefore, these babies need extra protection and care, often resulting in a NICU stay. When babies are born prematurely, these critical periods of development are required to take place in the harsh outside world. Chances are, you know someone who was born early too!īabies go through immense amounts of growth in utero, with especially important changes occurring in the last several months of pregnancy. Did you know that 1 in 10 babies are born preterm in the US? That’s a lot of babies! Preemies are a large portion of the population I work with at the hospital and other settings.
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