Adjusted age, or corrected age, is the age of your preemie baby according to her due date or when she “should have” been born if she had been born at term.
For example, my second preemie was born at 27 weeks, 13 weeks early. When she was 15 weeks old actual age (when she was actually born) she was only 2 weeks old adjusted age. When she was 6 months old actual age she was only 3 months old adjusted age.
All you do is take your baby’s actual age and subtract how many weeks too early she was born. This gives you her adjusted age.
My pediatrician advised me to monitor my baby’s growth according to her adjusted age because developmentally that was how old she “should” be. It gave me peace of mind for the first 1.5 years of her life to compare her to other children that were her adjusted age because she was right on track with them, or slightly ahead. By the time she turned 2 she was pretty much caught up with kids her actual age, at least as far as growth and development. Socially, she was a little behind because of so many winters of quarantine.
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they are only age adjusted until ltwo.
They say that kiddos are caught up by age 2, but a lot of them really aren’t. Especially preemies born earlier and weighing little. Mine was born at 26 weeks and weighed 450 grams (1 lb.) She was definitately NOT caught up at age 2. She’s 3 1/2 now and I think we’re just about there.
I agree with kate that preemie children born earlier and weighning little dont catch up at age 2 i think more like at age 3. I have triplets born at 27 weeks gestation and they are going to be 2 in october 2010. They are still catching up with speech. Miracles do happen.