Health concerns of a prem baby

[karlah]

My friend has gicven birth to a beautiful boy, he weighed 3lb and 5oz. 5 weeks on and he's now 5lb. My concern is that I've heard so many stories about prem babies having a greater risk of other health matters as they get older. Is this true and if so what's the probable conditions likely?

 

[25weeker]

Every prem baby is different and it will depend on what issues they have had during their stay in neonatal and how premature they were.

A lot of prems have weaker lungs & immune systems which makes them more prone to infections in their younger years but as they grow the problem lessens and it usually disappears by school age.

Apart from maybe being a bit more cautious and not being around sick people if possible and making sure everyone washes their hands before handling him he will just be like any other baby.

Development will go by their due date and not birth date for the first couple of years so if the average first smile is 12 weeks for a term baby for a baby born at 32 weeks it would be 20 weeks.

Hope this helps