IUGR 37 weeker- what's normal

[*Karen*]

I don't know what forum to post this in. I thought this was the closest. Does anyone else have a almost full term baby? I had a very rough pregnancy and was on bedrest from 23 weeks on. My blood pressure was out of control. Due to my bp and IUGR my ds was small, 5lbs 5ozs, born at 37 weeks. I do not know what developmentally he should be doing. He is still at the 5 percentile in all the charts for head size and length and 25th for weight. He can't do a lot of things like lift his head on his stomach. He also still hasn't noticed his hands and he is over 3 months old. He was considered "full term." What should I compare him to? TIA

[munkeesmama]

My son was full term and had IUGR he ended up being 6 lb 12 oz. I had a rough labor and delivery and i guess some of his problems could be attritubeted with that so take this for what its worth. My son didn't find his hands until he was 2-3 months old. He had problems taking a bottle (i also breastfed). He didn't smile until he was 6 months. He didn't sit up until he was 8 months. He rolled for the first time at 6 months. He also couldn't hold his head up until 6 months. He is now 3 1/2 and the most physical kid i've ever seen but now we're having autism spectrum issues. The doctors state that the iudr and the autism are not related. It's hard for me to decipher what was caused by what. I know that physical delays are expected with iugr though. Clear as mud? I probably haven't been much help, but don't want you to think you're alone.

[RedOakMomma]

Dylan's Mommy~ my twin boys were born close to full term, but lagged developmentally. Are you in the US? I would suggest asking a pediatrician to refer you to the state or locally-run "birth to three" program (it has different names in different states). It's a free service where they send out physical therapists to your house to help... or you can visit therapists in an office/center setting, too. It sounds like not much fun, I know, but in our experience it was so great :love. The women who worked with my boys were so wonderful, so supportive, so sweet. Four years later, we're still friends! More importantly, they helped my sons achieve so much. I would have been lost without their help.

Once you're in the program, you can stop at any time. It's separate from the school system, too, so you don't need to worry about any records or labels being transferred to your child's school experience.

PM me if you want to talk about exactly what it's like. I live in WI, so our state programs might be different, but I'd be happy to chat.

[Lousli]

My first daughter was nearly full term at 36 weeks and was 5 pounds 4 ounces. She wasn't IUGR but she was behind a bit on her milestones. However as soon as she outgrew her "newborn" phase (which lasted more like 8 weeks than 4, because 4 she should have been inside and 4 more when she was still sleepy and new). But after that she caught up really quickly and started reaching milestones between her actual age and adjusted age (so pretty much within 1 month or so of when she "should" have reached them). I agree with the PP that said you might want to look into early intervention. They can help a lot if there are any delays that needed to be focused on or they can tell you if your son is within the normal range.

[kwilki8]

My dd was born at 36 weeks with IUGR due to my pre-eclampsia. She was 4 lbs 12 oz at birth. What I've noticed about her is that she hasn't seemed to catch up as quickly as I was told she would. She has met all of her milestones, but it's consistently been at the tail end of normal for her adjusted age, so everything seems to take a bit longer. Even though she doesn't have any delays, I had to adjust my expectations and assume that things would come more slowly. If you have concerns about your son's development, I would certainly look into early intervention programs, even just to put your mind at ease. We work with a case worker through our county health department, and it's been reassuring just to have someone else tracking her development.

What I wouldn't worry about is those growth curves. As long as he is continuing to grow at a steady pace, it doesn't matter what percentile he is in. My dd has yet to hit the growth chart!

[eclipse]

My 10 month old was a 36 + a couple of days weeker. He was born at 6lbs4oz. He seems to be hitting his milestones right around where I would expect him to meet them for his adjusted age - so about a month "behind." There's such a large range of normal in babies that it's hard to know if this is due to him being early, or if he would be "behind" anyway. He's still hitting most gross motor milestones ahead of where my full term 3 yo did, though (she was behind).

[BookGoddess]

My daughter was born at 37 weeks. She was 6 pounds 11 oz. She spent 3 days in the NICU then she roomed in with me.

She has hit all the milestones she's supposed to (she's 1 year old now) but she hits them at or near the end of the normal time range for the milestones. She wasn't like me. I hit my milestones very early. But then again I wasn't born several weeks early either. I'm trying not to get too worried when DD does something at the tail end of normal. I can see that she's progressing in each area. She babbles, gestures, cruises, crawls super fast, finger feeds herself. She's just doing things at a pace that's normal for her. I brought up Early Intervention with my ped but she didn't think DD needed it. She said we could visit the idea sometime later if DD was really behind but she felt DD is doing fine right now.

[*Karen*]

I know this was from forver ago, but we just went to our 4 month visit yesterday. DS has STILL not found his hands. My doc didn't seem concerned! What! I told him that this was very troubleing to me and then he looked as his paper and said, oh yes, most babies have found thier hands by this age. Wow... I asked about EI and he said he is fine! We are moving and have to get a new doc anyway, but it is going to be so hard to find another that is non-vax friendly! Ah! He doesn't roll over either, but he does smile and laugh and do other things. Is there any chance that you can just skip this milestone? TIA

[munkeesmama]

My son was born at 39 weeks and had iugr he was 6 lbs 12 oz. he also had torticollis. developmentally like holding his head up and stuff he was way behind. he had a wobbly head until about 8 months. the doctors prepared me saying he would act like a preemie. He did pretty much everything late. Now at 3 1/3 he's healthy as a horse and VERY active.

[Cyneburh]

Just a note about Early Intervention and similiar programs...

You can refer your own child. You do not have to wait for the ped. The ped sees you for a short time and notices health issues much more then developmental issues. I say this because with my dd, we noticed speech problems. We first thought there might be frequency specific hearing loss, so we had her tested. When we asked the ped about testing the hearing, she didn't see any real reason to and though she agreed that the verbal skills were behind, it didn't seem outside of the normal range.

We ended up calling Early Intervention (or whatever it's called here) ourselves and scheduling the testing.

Turned out there was no hearing loss but she tested around a year behind in her speech/verbal skills. At age 2.5, that's a big delay. She now gets speech therapy 2x a week during the school year at no charge to us. During the summer we got reduced price therapy through Easter Seals.

We were told that it's very common for parents to refer their own children for testing that that they actually find that more accurate then when the ped does it. Because the parents know the child so much better.

For your own peace of mind, call and get your ds tested. The resources are great and they're free. And the testing and therapy are all play based so the kids really enjoy it. Dd loves to go to speech class and gets excited to see her "teacher" each week.