Preemies Babies – Able Home Tending In The Initial Weeks – Part I

While the mother and the lately born infant are just adapting to the home environment, eventually the duo would manage to jointly set up a routine. One would eventually find out that the premature baby is essentially different from what one would be expecting of a full-term child. In the initial weeks at home, one needs to contemplate the following stated crucial pointers:

Snooze and sleeplessness patterns:

During delivery, as premature babies have incomplete brain function development in contrast to full-term newly born babies, hence premature babies:

• Have a tendency of sleeping more for every 24-hour time span as compared to full-term babies do, though for smaller time periods. One could look forward to awakening repeatedly during the night times till six months following one’s due date.
• Could hardly ever manage to keep awake for more than short spans of time till nearly two months following the child’s birth. It could even appear like a protracted period of time prior to the child displaying responsiveness to the mother’s presence.

Fussy and hypersensitive behavior:

It is quite a usual occurrence for six weeks and above full-term babies to wail for close to three hours per day. Majority of the premature babies too would exhibit analogous crying patterns. The premature child might exhibit easy over-stimulation in response to unwarranted light sources, noises, feel or movement or due to over-quietude after having stayed in a noise-filled NICU. If that is the case, then a more soothing ambience needs to be slowly introduced by both swaddling the child in a wrap-around coverlet, and holding the child for as long as one could possibly manage to.

Sleeping posture:

Placing the child on the back lowers the likelihood of SIDS or sudden infant death syndrome that is observed to be more prevalent in premature babies as compared to full-term babies.

Feeding patterns:

The child would likely come home on a hospital feeding plan that would provide insight on the frequency of nursing or bottle-feeding at home. For avoiding the infant from getting dehydrated, one must not keep more than four hours gap in-between feeds. Small-sized portions during feed times would aid in reducing spit-ups. If the child is exhibiting symptoms of reflux at the time or following feeds then one would need to speak to the child’s doctor about this fact.

Popularity: 23% [?]