A google search reveals that premature babies take around 3 years to catch up, but a premature baby is obviously not born more than a couple months earlier than they “should” be. Why does it take so long for them to develop, why wouldn’t they just continue growing as they would have inside the womb?
In: 9
If you go based on how long it’s been from time of conception, a premature baby is literally younger than a full term baby for the rest of their lives. In babies there is a huge difference between a 4 month old and a 6 month old, so they will naturally be way behind if they are 8 weeks premature. This sort of dissipates over time bc there isn’t much difference between a 5 year old and a 5 year 2 month old.
Also the womb is the perfect environment for a growing baby. Once outside the womb a newborn premature baby will not develop as quickly.
My friend had a baby at 11 weeks early and it then took 20 weeks till they could take him home (2 months past his original due date). So he was 5 months old, maybe 6-8 lbs, and he was not as healthy as a normal newborn, he was on oxygen and had other issues. So physically he was like 5 months behind other kids his age and it took a while to catch up and for the difference be less noticeable.
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