Hey everyone. I just wanted to discuss the progress of everyone's preemies! My son Riley was born at 32w1d and weighed 3 lbs 10 oz and was 17 inches long. He is now 4 months (2 months adjusted) and weighs 13 lbs 7 oz and is 22.5 in long! He is the same weight as a FT baby his age and I am just shocked! It seems like I have opposite children. My 3 year old, Tyler, was born 38w4d and he's always been on the small side. At his 4 month appt. he weighed 12 lbs 4 oz but was 25 inches long. I have a tall skinny toddler and a short chubby baby!
So how has your preemies grown in the first few months? I'm wondering since it seems like mine "caught up" already size-wise, if he'll stay that way or if he will fall behind again? He's on Enfamil Enfacare 22 cal formula and his pediatrician is going to switch him to regular calorie formula at 6 months. What formula were your preemies on? (If you didn't breastfeed. I tried to pump but never got my supply established).
Thanks so much!
Already a member? Sign in
Welcome to Inspire!
What - Inspire is a place where you can connect with people who share your health concerns and find information and advice in groups sponsored by organizations you know and trust.
Why - As a member you can use Inspire to let friends and family know how you're doing, contact others who share your health concerns, receive personalized updates and information about participating in surveys and clinical trials, and more.
How - Joining Inspire is completely free and usually takes less than a minute. Join now!
Preemie progress...
- By j-LyNn
- Posted April 3, 2008 at 10:45 am · 10 replies
- In Growing up and education
- Shared with the public
Explore topics in this discussion:
10 replies
- Oldest first
- Newest first
- By andresito
- Posted April 3, 2008 at 11:36 am
- Report post
My preemie was born at 35 weeks and weighed 2 lbs 7 oz and measured 14 inches long. He is now 10 mos adjusted, weighs 15 lbs 2 oz and is 27.5 inches long. He started out on 22 cal Enfacare formula and it was increased to 24 calories, then, 27 calories. At about 8 mos of age, adjusted, I switched him to lactose-free Enfamil and fortify it to 27 calories. He is ok in head and length size but is not even on the charts for weight. He is doing well otherwise, so as long as he is on the chart for two out of three things, I'm happy. He now is on a 900 calories/day diet. Hopefully, that will help him catch up a little bit.
Overall, he is doing well. No more liver issues!
- By 2inoneyear
- Posted April 3, 2008 at 12:29 pm
- Report post
Your little boy's progress sounds a lot like my oldest daughter. She was born at 33 weeks and weighed just over five pounds. I think she was 14 pounds at her 4 month checkup. She was short and chubby for her first 9 months or so too. I know by 4 months she was above the 50% on normal growth charts. At 5 months I switched her from breastmilk to regular enfamil and she did fine.
She is now 18 months old and still doing well. However, she is down to the 25% in weight and up to the 75% in height. I questioned my pediatrician about the change at her last appointment and she said that her growth is normal for preemies. The doctor said that it was actually surprising that she made it to the 50% in weight that quickly and the 25% is more of what I should expect at this time. Considering where she came from, I am happy with either the 25% or 50%!
- By Suzan33
- Posted April 4, 2008 at 11:07 am
- Report post
Hi everyone,
I don't post often only because I forgot I was a member here.
Anyways, I have triplets born at 24 weeks who are 2 years old now. They are caught up in every way with other 2 year olds except in size. They are still the smallest 2 year olds in a lot of playgroups that they go to. They are all jsut shy of 3' tall but are in the 23-26 pound range. When they were born they were the size of a dollar bill and ranged in weight from 1#1 to 1#5. They have never been on "the chart" but are following their own growth curve. No drs. have ever been worried about their size as long as they are geowing.
- By j-LyNn
- Posted April 4, 2008 at 11:57 am
- Report post
Aw I'm so glad to hear all the babies are doing well!!!
- By LoveMyBoys
- Posted April 4, 2008 at 2:39 pm
- Report post
Hi j-LyNn
I'm glad Riley is doing well! My little guy sounds similar to your - he was born at 28 weeks gestation and weighed 3 lbs - so he was already big at that point! He was about 8 lbs at 4 mos, and then started gaining a pound a week! He made it on to the regular growth chart at about 9 mos and kept climbing - his "curve" was almost a straight line up! At his 2 year appt he was 50-75th for height and weight unadjusted! He does have arrested hydrocephalus so his head is actually off the chart - but it doesn't look that big because his whole body is big - he doesn't look any different from the other 2 and 2 1/2 year old he plays with.
- By princessa083
- Posted April 4, 2008 at 4:28 pm
- Report post
hello i my boy was a 33 wkr and he was in the same situation he was 4 pounds when he was born and at 2 months he was 13 pounds now he is 5 months adjusted weighting 19.8 . congrats
- By bekamom
- Posted April 4, 2008 at 6:19 pm
- Report post
hi there my son was 3lbs 11oz at birth(29weeker) and is now 1 month adjusted and is weighing in at 10lbs and 21 inches long. he is doing great. I had the infant development ladies come out to the house yesterday and they said he was doing really good and is ahead of where they would expect him to be. So I am happy.
- By brneyedgrl827
- Posted April 5, 2008 at 2:48 am
- Report post
my daughter was 1 lb. 12 oz. and 13 1/2" at birth (28 weeker). currently, she is 10 1/2 months actual (7 1/2 adjusted) and is just over 16 lbs. and 26 1/2". she was on breast milk exclusively for 3-4 months until my supply dwindled. :( since then, she's been on similac neosure. she's on the regular growth chart for weight and head circumference, but on the lower end...and not yet for weight. her GI is having us switch her to regular formula, but fortified to 24 calories...she eats, just not as much as she should. she started out small for a 28-weeker though, so i'm not expecting that she'll "catch up" quite as quickly. she's already 9x her birth weight and twice her birth length...can't complain about that! :)
- By treesa
- Posted April 6, 2008 at 3:11 pm
- Report post
hi my son was born at 35 weeks -4lbs 3oz. he is now 22 months and weighs 21 lbs and is 32 inches tall. he had caught up at 13 months old -he was actually size of 18 month olds. he quit growing at 13 months and now is extremely small -3rd pecentile for weight and 25% for height.everything else about him is on track or ahead . he just wont eat. he a started out on high calorie formula 22 and then at 6 months was switched to regukar enfamil and then at 12 months switched to wwhole milk at 15 months was taken off whole milk and put on soy formula .then at 18 months took off formula and pit on pediasure.is still on pediasure.
- By Zouk
- Posted May 22, 2009 at 2:57 am
- Report post
My boys were born at 32 weeks at 4 lbs and 4 lbs 10 oz each. We've been supplementing breastmilk 2 to 4 times a day with the 22 cal formula and they are ballooning. At 3 months they were 12lbs 9 and 12lbs 6, and at 4 months they'd hit 14lbs 7 and 14lbs 14. I do demand feeding so they get fed whenever they seem interested. Still smallish for full term babies, but big preemies. I am hoping we can stop supplementing soon, but since my husband and I are tall people ( we are 5'10 and 6'5) its looking like the boys may have to stay on until they are above the 50th or 75th percentile on the full term charts since they should be bigger than average babies. Might take a while.
At any rate, the NICU nurses stressed that its really important to keep preemies on the higher cal stuff until they catch up with same-age full termers because supposedly it makes a big difference in physical and intellectual developmental milestones later on. If my ped was recommending to take them off before they caught up to the full term charts, I might question that.
Add to the discussion