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Preemies
any preemies take a LONG time to develop neck muscles?
My little guy is having such a hard time lifting his head for tummy time. He's nearly 4 months adjusted and he rarely lifts his head when he is on his playmat. He usually just yells and cries. He's getting better at controlling his head when he's being held in a more upright position, but he still has a bit of a bobble head and scares himself if his head lolls backward when we're holding him or when he's in his bumbo. He definitely does not have the neck strength or conrol of a 4 month old, maybe not even a 3 month old. He's getting PT and we're working with him every day, but it is still so frustrating. He's not even anywhere close to rolling over either. I know that he's a preemie and he'll do things in his own way and his own time. I know that. But some days it's just hard. Did anybody else's baby take a longer time to meet milestones? I feel like most preemies I hear of meet milestones appropriately for their adjusted age and then maybe slip a bit after 1 year adjusted. But my guy seems to be delayed, at least in gross motor skills, already.
TTC with unexplained IF since 8/2007
6 losses, one beautiful perfect boy in our arms
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Re: any preemies take a LONG time to develop neck muscles?
I totally understand-- even though you think you're prepared for these things, they're still so stressful and scary. I think it's awesome that you're doing physical therapy (our daughter does PT, too) and all the research says that EI makes a huge difference.
That said, what our therapist said to us was that isolated things like this (neck control) aren't a huge deal. Every preemie will show something like this (our daughter had neck tightness and has been tiptoeing). She said that when you should be concerned is when they appeared to be globally delayed-- for example, weak neck control AND weak suck AND poor eye contact, etc.
I think what you're experiencing is pretty typical-- but nonetheless stressful! Just hang in there and like you said, he'll get there on this own time.