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Preemies
Adjusted age
When did you "adjust" the age of your LO?
I don't understand the whole concept. Even if they were supposed to be born a certain day, they're still going to be 2 months 7 days old, because that's how long they've been "here".
ETA: The girls EDD was October 15th.
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Re: Adjusted age
That makes sense.
But do people use the "adjusted" age IRL? Like, would you tell someone your son is 5 weeks old?
It varies. When my son was 4 months old and 7 pounds, it was easier to tell strangers that he was 1-2 weeks old, or a newborn. I guess if you don't mind a lot of questions and explaining, using the actual age isn't a problem. We just wanted to avoid a lot of that from strangers. Now that he's 31months old, with an adjusted age of 27months, we just say he's 2.
When it comes to his milestones, we adjusted for everything. I don't think it's fair to expect him to do what a four month old does when he's at newborn stage and 7lbs. Or when he was 10 months old and just learning to sit because he was supposed to be 6months old. Plus he's had a much harder start at life than his FT peers. Honestly, the idea of not adjusting is plain rediculous to me. NOTHING will change the fact that my son was 4 months early, and should have been floating around doing nothing but growing during that time.
We do celebrate his birthdays, on his actual birthday. We know his actual age for sure, he only has one birthday.
MommyNoelle, I remember you from the Multiples page. How are your LO's? How are you?
Mine are still in the NICU. Their original due date was 10-24-10, so our's were very similar time periods. Hope they're doing well. My understanding on adjusted age is that we will start counting from their EDD and their actual due date.
Yes, because if your child is born early (esp really early) it's confusing to tell people your kid is 12 months old if they are really only 9, for example. Then they are wondering why they are so small, and not walking or maybe not crawling, etc etc .!
They will look and behave like their adjusted age for a while. Andrew is 21 months old and we still use his adjusted age of 18 mo. He is behind most of his peers of 18 mo, so it makes sense for us.
My neo told me that the adj. date is used for milestones, and developmental skills - things like that. For instance, my LO was born 9 weeks early. So, his chronological age is 12 weeks, but his adjusted age is 3 weeks. If I was to take him in to be seen by his neo, he wouldn't expect for my son to be doing anything more than a full-term 3 weeker would be doing, with the exception of a few overlaps. For instance, the day after he told me that, my son started rolling over from his belly on to his back! That was about a month ago! He also told me we'd be using the two different ages until about 2 years of age, which is when most preemies are expected to have "caught up" with other kids their age.
P.S.: Mine seriously still looks like a newborn (just now around 8lbs), even though he's 12 weeks. When ppl ask me his age, and I respond with the chronological, they usually pepper me with questions about premature birth. Sometimes, it's just easier to smile and take the compliment that I have a beautiful newborn...lol.
I think it depends on your child and what you decide to do. I use their actual age. If they are not doing something... like walking and people ask how old they are I used to say.. they are 15 months, but were born 10 weeks early so....
I never told someone they were only 6 weeks... when they were actually 4 months... just didn't make sense to me. Especially now because size wise they are right within age expectations for actual age. That's why I think it would be different based on your child.
Adjusted age definitely makes sense for hitting milestones though.