Corrected age in premature babies, what is it?
A baby premature generates many doubts in the parents of the same. From the needs of the same to the terms that define the situations through which these children go. To solve these questions, the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, AEP, who talks about the different "ages" that these children go through.
Gestational age, chronological age, corrected age? What do these terms mean? From the AEP each of these concepts are defined and their relationship with babies is explained premature, clarifying doubts of parents who have seen how their children came to this world before the account.
Corrected age
Gestational age is defined as the age that corresponds to the time that the pregnancy lasted. It is counted in weeks, from the first day of the last menstruation until the moment of delivery. On the contrary, chronological age refers to what happened after delivery. It is usually described in days, weeks, months and years.
The corrected age refers to the time that the premature baby would have if it had fulfilled the time of gestation established by the specialists. Prematurity time is measured in weeks and is calculated by subtracting the 40 weeks, in theory length of gestation, the number of real weeks that the little one has spent in the womb before being born.
Since AEP Remember that it is important to correct the age of babies born prematurely. This adjustment should be made according to the prematurity of the child to be able to properly assess the evolution of neurological and physical development. The development of a premature baby can not be compared with that of a child born at term, at least until 2 years of age, because during this time the development of the first one takes place more slowly.
Influence of corrected age
The corrected age is used to evaluate the weight, the size and the cephalic perimeter. To reach the weight and size of a baby born at 40 weeks, the preterm needs a time that will depend on their gestational age. This stage, for example, does not affect aspects such as the vaccination schedule and the minors who are shining ahead of time will receive the same doses as the rest.
Regarding the feeding of babies at the corrected age, from AEP these are indicated aspects:
- During the first 6 months of life the baby only needs to take breast milk.
- It is advisable to use the corrected age to start introducing the rest of the food, individualizing according to the needs.
- It is not convenient to introduce complementary feeding before 4 months of corrected age.
Damián Montero
