Which age do you use?

smileychic10986

Not that I've ran into this issue yet, but just thinking about the future...  When you are out with your child, and someone asks their age, do you give them the actual age, or adjusted age?  Does it depend on how they ask, or why they seem to ask?  does it depend on who the person is?  I am thinking we will most likely go by her adjusted age, d/t her size and that her milestones will most likely line up more with her adjusted age.  What do you say?

witt0198

When Evan was about 4-5 months old and 7lbs, we used his adjusted when out and about. Explaining everything everytime it came up just got old really quick, and this way we could avoid all that. If it was someone we were going to be around with or friends, I'd actually tell both. I felt like, yes he is this old, but really he's this old and please don't judge him like he's his actual age, because that's just not fair to him. Now that he's almost 2 adjusted as well, and pretty much caught up. I just say 2. Most people don't ask for the months any more anyway. I'd say I started saying 2 in just the past few weeks.

jehprb

We used his actual age with everyone except medical people - no reason not to as far as I'm concerned and besides, if I had said he was 7 months old when he was 9 months I would have felt like I was lying.  People make all kinds of comments from "he's so tiny!" to "he's so huge!" no matter what size or age your child is so if it came up I just said he was born early and left it at that.

ssg73

We use actual age.  We often follow that up with she was a preemie and only 2lbs 5oz when they give us a funny look.  Sometimes I don't even bother with that.  I am pretty small so I think people just think that she is small like me.

FemmeNat01

So far, we use their actual age. I just say that they were preemies if required and leave it at that.

mommamorris

dh uses adjusted almost exclusively.. he gets tired of explaining.

most of the time i use actual, then follow it (if necessary, based on the amount of time i have, the look they give me, or the random family member they have that they compare her to to say "she's so small!") with "she was a preemie, 3 months early, blah...blah..blah..." they usually just go "oh." and that's the end of it. sometimes they still don't understand and if they're friendly i'll give her birthweight which was 1 11. then they get it.

dd is in the 5th percentile for actual, and only 10th for adjusted. so it's still really obvious that she's abnormally little. and her development isn't on par with her actual age either.. i think once she catches up with everything it will be easier. 

Shayna0182

We use actual age now, but it helps that ds grew in weight quite a bit, so now looks like other babies his age.  When he first came home though, at 5lbs, he was so small that most people thought he was a newborn, even though he was 6 weeks old.