Preemies: Preemie Baby Child Care
I’m still thinking about my previous post about SIDS when premature babies (called preemies) come to mind.
I don’t want to scare parents who are searching the internet for information about premature birth of an infant (or preemie) so I’ll just going to put here everything there is about how to take care premature babies.
Preemies, are those babies that are born before their full-term. Prematurity occurs when a pregnancy lasts fewer than 37 weeks; full-term infants are born 38 to 42 weeks after the mother’s last menstrual period (LMP).
Preemie’s Basic Needs
Premature babies are small for their age and week. Special care and treatment must be given to them for them to be healthy.
The basic needs of a preemie are:
- Warmth
- Nutrition and Growth
Warmth
If you’ll notice, Preemies lack the body fats. They look so thin and small. Premature babies has less body fats necessary to maintain their body temperature. A new born, mature baby baby has blankets and other warmer to keep him warm but even when swaddled with blankets preemies still need more warmth
Therefore, incubators or radiant warmers are used to keep the them warm.
Nutrition and Growth
Premature babies have special nutritional needs because they grow at a faster rate than full-term babies and their digestive systems are immature. Neonatologists (pediatricians who specialize in the care of newborns) measure their weight in grams, not pounds and ounces. Full-term babies usually weigh more than 2,500 grams (about 5 pounds, 8 ounces), whereas premature babies weigh anywhere from about 500 to 2,500 grams.
So, what are premature babies fed? Breast milk is an excellent source of nutrition, but premature infants are too immature to feed directly from the breast or bottle until they’re 32 to 34 weeks gestational age. Most premature infants have to be fed slowly because of the risk of developing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), an intestinal infection unique to preemies. Breast milk can be pumped by the mother and fed to the premature baby through a tube that goes from the baby’s nose or mouth into the stomach.
You can read more information about preemies or premature babies and how to properlly care for them here.
[...] thank God Sean is not a preemie or you know, suffered from SIDS. He will grow healthy because he has the average height and weight [...]
[...] I read an article from cbsnews just now and there is no doubt that I have to re-post it here to spread the word, the information to other parents about preemies. [...]