IUGR Babies

[violets8]

Hi mamas,
I have a baby with IUGR. He was born at term weighing 4.5 lbs. Now he is 16 months old and weighs 19 pounds and he is 28 inches long. We have never been on the charts but he is following his own curve. He babbles but has no words and he crawled at a year old and is not walking yet. He also has a severe nut allergy. I am seeking stories from other moms that have had babies with IUGR. I am wondering if my son being late on his milestones is him or the IUGR. We were receiving services for gross motor development but I discontinued them when he began to crawl. I really feel like he should be seeing a speech therapist but I was told they would not see him till he was 18 months old. His pediatrician said if need we would discuss a speech eval at his 18 month WBV. So are there any other mamas of babies with IUGR out there that would be willing to share their experience with me. Thanks in advance!

Michelle

[Spirit Dancer]

My dd did not have IUGR but she did not walk till 17 mo.

[sbgrace]

One of my boys was IUGR. He was over 1.5 pounds smaller than his twin. IUGR baby met his milestones. His twin didn't. My nephew was singleton and IUGR (cord issue they believe) and he met his milestones too. My nephew is smaller than his brothers. My IUGR son is larger than his twin but, I believe, smaller than he would have been otherwise. He does have allergies including a severe nut allergy.

I think whether the two are connected depends very much on the why behind the IUGR, which I know you may not know.

Walking isn't technically late until 18 months. My later developing son walked at 17 months. He's mildly low tone and missed motor milestones before and after walking though he hit walking. That same child (the one not IUGR) dropped off the curve for much of his young life and is now around 5%. We found out at 3.5 years he has a metabolic condition. I'm sure that is responsible for all his stuff.

[violets8]

Orion is low tone as well and has super flexible joints. We could not put any stress on his shoulder until just recently due to the possibility of dislocation. He also looks like he has a belly but it is weak abdominal muscles. Orion stopped growing in utero at 31 weeks. They put me on bedrest hoping he would grow but he didn't. The placenta was very small. I am so thankful he is alive and do feel guilty because I feel like I allowed the stress of my job to effect my sweet baby. I have good blood pressure but while at work the stress would make it spike and spike and spike. When seeing my midwife I would be relaxed and it would be ok and there were only traces of protein in my urine. I now have a much less stressful job. Thanks for listening and replying!

[hergrace]

My IUGR baby met most of his milestones at about the same time as all my other kids and all were within the realm of normal until about 2. Since then, we have had some expressive language delays both for the IUGR boy and for his brother (but nothing that is unusual for multiples and younger children).

IUGR describes a result, not a cause. It only says "this baby didn't grow as much as we think it should have in utero." Some reasons for this lack of growth have causes that result in delays, some don't. So, I would try to let go of his birth weight and focus on what is going on now.

If the low tone is still an issue, I would personally try to get the therapy restarted. Also, if he has generally low tone, he probably has low tone in the muscles he needs for speaking, so he probably could use games like blowing and drinking through a straw to help strengthen some of those muscles.

HTH

[sbgrace]

Ok. With the tone too...have you looked at metabolic conditions?

[violets8]

i do not know anything about metabolic conditions no one has ever mentioned that to me before. Could you tell me a little more about that. Thank you!

[vitar82]

My baby was SGA (small for gestational age) 5lb 4oz 18 inches at 39 weeks when I was induced. Her US showed that she probably stopped growing sometime between 32-35 weeks but its hard to tell for sure because I didnt know about it until 38 weeks. I dont know what could have possibly gone wrong, placenta was of normal size only the cord was short. Anyway, she was born in the 3-5% for all 3 parameters but now at 7 months she is about 15% by length, 10-15% by weight and 25% head, so I am no longer too worried about her size She always ate well with no nursing problems.
I am somewhat worried about her tone and muscle development but I posted at lengh about this in the hypotonia string. She has some physical delays with i really hope we will be able to overcome wiht PT, but she has not been diagnosed w/ any syndrome or condition by our ped at this time.

[violets8]

The not knowing is difficult. orion is still very much a baby. He eats like a champ but doesn't talk and only has 1 tooth. Was anyone else's IUGR baby a baby for a long time?

[sbgrace]

Originally Posted by violets8

i do not know anything about metabolic conditions no one has ever mentioned that to me before. Could you tell me a little more about that. Thank you!

I made a post a while back about metabolics and special needs. Let me know if you see anything that seems relevant and/or if you've got questions. I'm happy to help.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=734501

My IUGR child (nor his twin with the issues) seemed babyish long. However, have you looked into when his daddy and yourself got teeth? The order and time of presentation of teeth is very genetic and I imagine one of you took a while to get them perhaps.

No words at all? Think about speech assessment and I agree with the pp that PT can help with tone stuff if there are any delays in motor milestones.

You didn't cause this with your work stress. These things just happen sometimes.

[june'smom]

There are genetic abnormalitys that are associated with short cords. I would ask your pedi again. Not to scare you, but some of them are associated with poor muscle tone.

[Momily]

My son was IUGR, but during the first trimester. My understanding is that the pattern he showed, where fetuses stop growing, and then start again but stay SGA is rare. It is more common for first trimester IUGR to result in miscarriage. However, since I wasn't the one who carried him, and didn't know about him until after he was born (I adopted him at 16 days) I don't know as much as I might.

Anyway, my son was born at 5 lbs at 38 weeks, and had a number of medical issues that might or not have been related to the IUGR/SGA issues. He had slightly high tone on his skeletal muscles -- not to the point where it was problem, but to the point that one would think, wow that's a strong baby, but reflux and laryngomalacia and chronic constipation (which are all low tone issues). However, his birthmother who was born at a normal weight at term had the same issues as an infant.

Because of some of his early medical issues, my son had several complete developmental work ups as an infant and toddler -- OT, PT, ST, developmental psych, hearing, etc . . . Other than feeding (he was fed by a tube because he aspirated on the swallow) and some delays in babbling, he met or slightly exceeded all developmental milestones. He stayed below the curve until about age 3 when his growth took off (at that age he was first able to take breaks from inhaled steroids which he had needed because of lung damage due to aspiration). He's now 10, age appropriate in every way, eats 100% by mouth, and is 75th %ile for height and 90th for weight.

[annekh23]

My now 6.5 yr old was IUGR, he was 5lb13oz, which isn't particularly small, but our best estimate would be that he should have been more like 9lb, so it was a significant and relatively quick process as it only seemed to start at 32 weeks.

There are so many things about him that's it's impossible to tell whether it's related to IUGR or just personality. He was a fairly late talker, but then switched pretty quickly to being way ahead of his age, his 1st grade teacher is stunned by words he uses apparently correctly and appears to understand.

He always had very good muscle tone and I don't recall seeing that on a list of possible IUGR related issues.

He doesn't have great concentration, which I think is linked statistically, but we can't really be sure for him.

At 18mths he was still visibly out of proportion, I think he still is technically, but it's not obvious. He's actually a lot stronger than most kids his age, he's just a bundle of muscle, but with less weight to apply it to, so he was ahead in doing things like monkey bars in the playground.

[mrsfru]

Mama,

You did NOT cause IUGR w/stress from work. It was a problem either w/your placenta which can have many causes or w/his body. You did not cause IUGR. I repeat, you did not cause IUGR!!!

My first was born at 29 wks and he had IUGR. My second was born at 35 wks, and while not IUGR, it was only b/c he had grown at nearly the 99% for the first 28-30 weeks! So, at 35 wks, he still weighed 6 lbs, but had pretty much stopped growing.

Some problems that cause IUGR can also cause developmental delays. And your ped is wrong--a speech therapist CAN work w/an 18 mos or younger baby. DS1 saw an ST for eating and sensory issues. Most of these types of therapists can and do work w/younger toddlers and infants. Go back to therapy for him--it can help him and it can help you find answers. Often, the therapists pick up on more and know more about developmental problems than the peds do.

Best wishes!

mrsfru

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by violets8

Hi mamas,
I have a baby with IUGR. He was born at term weighing 4.5 lbs. Now he is 16 months old and weighs 19 pounds and he is 28 inches long. We have never been on the charts but he is following his own curve. He babbles but has no words and he crawled at a year old and is not walking yet. He also has a severe nut allergy. I am seeking stories from other moms that have had babies with IUGR. I am wondering if my son being late on his milestones is him or the IUGR. We were receiving services for gross motor development but I discontinued them when he began to crawl. I really feel like he should be seeing a speech therapist but I was told they would not see him till he was 18 months old. His pediatrician said if need we would discuss a speech eval at his 18 month WBV. So are there any other mamas of babies with IUGR out there that would be willing to share their experience with me. Thanks in advance!

Michelle

my oldest was IUGR -- and born at week 38 at 5 pounds even.

he is 4. We have a number of SN -- or one the root of which we can't find --

but i talked to an SW the other day that gave me some insight.

Theo staopped growing at week 34 (maybe before) -- and that he still at 4 shows signs of being a pre-mee despite being born at week 38.

She strongly encouraged us to take into account the "lack of typical grown" BEFORE birth in consideration of him now.

Theo has met all milestone at the long end of normal and alway been tiny (below the chart or botton of the chart but on his own safe curve).

we started ST at 22 months, but had refereal to start at 18 months and i wish we had -- but at the time we felt he was a little behind and would outgrow it -- if i knew we'd still be dealing with this at 4+ I'd have started at 16 or 18 months when the Ped first suggested it.


Our placenta was 1/2 the size it sould be an dmal-formed. It was an act of god, and imo is jsut part of the over all pan for me and DH as parents and Theo as a person.

no momma gulit -- work stress didn't not cuase your son to be IUGR