Pediatrician Tanya Altmann discusses how premature, or “preemie”, babies might develop differently than a full-term baby. Preemies are babies that are born within 34 weeks, and they can sometimes have issues that require oxygen, medication, or the use of a specialist. However, with modern technology, preemies do much better in terms of health and development. While they may encounter some initial issues, once they have learned to feed and breathe on their own, they can typically begin to catch up fairly quickly to full-term babies by their first year.

Transcript:

- A baby that is born before 37 weeks of age is considered premature, and some premature babies are born looking just like full term babies, and some are born so early that they can have other issues because their lungs aren't fully developed yet. So how your premature baby does depends on when they're born and what problems they have after they're born. With excellent neonatologists, and NICUs, and all of the modern technologies, premature babies do very well, and we have excellent ways of helping them live and continue their life outside the womb until they reach the point where they're able to go home just as a full term baby would. By the time your baby goes home with you, often they're fine. Sometimes they may need medication. They may need some oxygen, or they may need to be followed by a specialist, depending on what issues they have. Once your baby is feeding on their own and breathing on their own, they usually catch up fairly quickly, and parents will often ask me when we're looking at the growth chart, "When will my preterm baby catch up to regular babies of their own age?" And generally that happens sometime in the first year of age. They may start off below the growth chart for height and weight, but with time, as long as you keep feeding them, especially breastfeeding them, they will catch up, usually by around one year of age.