Developmental Delay In Infants Research Articles

Supporting Optimal Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Infants and Children With Congenital Heart Disease.

Improved survival has led to increased recognition of developmental delays in infants and children with congenital heart disease. Risk factors for developmental delays in congenital heart disease survivors may not be modifiable; therefore, it is important that lifesaving, high-technology critical care interventions be combined with nursing interventions that are also developmentally supportive. Implementing developmental care in a pediatric cardiac intensive care unit requires change implementation strategies and widespread support from all levels of health care professionals. This manuscript reviews developmentally supportive interventions such as massage, developmentally supportive positioning, kangaroo care, cue-based feeding, effective pain/anxiety management, and procedural preparation and identifies strategies to implement developmentally supportive interventions in the care of infants and children with congenital heart disease. Improving developmental support for these infants and children at high risk for developmental delay may improve their outcomes and help promote family-centered care.

Why do children with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia not attend neonatal follow-up care? Parental views of barriers.

To assess in children with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia at a corrected age of 18-36 months: (i) Neonatal follow-up clinic attendance rates; (ii) Parent-identified reasons for difficulty attending neonatal follow-up. Mixed methods study utilising semi-structured phone interviews with parents of infants eligible for follow-up with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (defined as gestational age <32 weeks and requiring ≥30% FiO2 and/or >2 L nasal cannula at 36 weeks post-menstrual age) at 18-36 months corrected age. Questions addressed barriers to neonatal follow-up attendance. Enrolment continued to saturation (no new themes emerging). A total of 58 infants (69% male) were enrolled. Infants were 26 ± 2.1 weeks gestational age and birth weight 794 ± 262 g. At 28 ± 5.8 months corrected age, 26% had never attended neonatal follow-up clinic, 16% stopped attending before discharge, 5% were discharged, and 53% were still followed. Longer travel distance from home to follow-up clinic was associated with poorer attendance. Parent-generated items related to neonatal follow-up barriers were coded into four themes: Logistics, Time, Perceptions and Emotional Stress. Despite high risk of developmental delay in infants with severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia, neonatal follow-up rates are suboptimal. Careful review of parent-identified barriers could be utilised to develop targeted strategies to improve neonatal follow-up attendance in this high-risk population.

Quantitative Real-Time Assessment for Feeding Skill of Preterm Infants.

Nutritive sucking is the approach of obtaining primary food for newborns within six months. However, completing the precise coordination of sucking-swallowing-respiratory actions under oral feeding is usually difficult for preterm infants and may affect the body and neural development of the premature infant. For this reason, how to obtain the quantitatively physiological information related to oral feeding is useful for physicians making more accurate clinical diagnoses for oral feeding disorders. However, there is still lack of monitoring systems for evaluating the feeding skill of infants quantitatively and objectively. The assessment of the feeding skill or the diagnosis of oral-feeding disorders still depends on the clinical experience of medical staffs. In this study, a novel wireless monitoring system is proposed to evaluate the feeding behavior of infants quantitatively and objectively and analyze the characteristics of these actions under oral feeding. Here, a specific feeding bottle and an optical probe are also designed and successfully applied to non-invasively monitor the sucking and respiratory actions, and a microphone is also applied to monitor the swallowing action. From the experimental results, the sucking and swallowing rate increases and the respiratory rate decreases with the increase of the infant age. Moreover, the duration increases and the interval of sucking-action sequence decreases with the increase of the infant age respectively. The proposed system successfully assesses the feeding behavior of preterm infants and may provide an objective evaluation tool for oral feeding ability and identifying the risk of infant developmental delay in the future.

What can we do for people with drug-resistant epilepsy? The 2016 Wartenberg Lecture.

Treatment goals for epilepsy are no seizures, no side effects, as soon as possible, but these goals are too often unmet. Approximately 1 million people in the United States continue to have seizures despite adequate treatment with antiseizure drugs, representing 40% of those with epilepsy, and 80% of the cost of epilepsy. Drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) can be associated with developmental delay in infants and young children, and severe disability and morbidity in older children and adults, as well as a mortality rate 5-10 times that of the general population. While diagnosis and treatment at a full-service (levels 3 and 4) epilepsy center are demonstrated to improve seizure control, fewer than 1% of people with DRE are referred, and those who are, are referred an average of over 20 years after onset of habitual seizures. A possible reason for this is the misconception that all these epilepsy centers offer is surgery. Specialized multidisciplinary teams, consisting of neurologists, clinical neurophysiologists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and counselors, which constitute full-service epilepsy centers, can recognize and address pseudopharmacoresistance due to nonadherence, seizures that are not epilepsy, treatable underlying conditions, misdiagnosis of epilepsy syndromes, treatment with the wrong drug or wrong dosage, and lifestyle issues that are remediable. A variety of alternative treatment approaches are offered in addition to surgery, and for patients who continue to have seizures, full-service epilepsy centers have psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and counselors specialized in recognizing, and addressing, the psychological and social challenges experienced by people with epilepsy. Surgery for epilepsy remains, arguably, the most underutilized of all acceptable medical interventions, and the reasons for this are unclear. Often, excellent surgical candidates are not recognized as such by general neurologists, but if more patients with DRE were referred to full-service epilepsy centers, more surgical candidates would be identified by epilepsy specialists. All patients with medication-resistant epilepsy, defined as failure of 2 appropriate trials of antiseizure drugs due to inefficacy and not intolerance, who continue to be compromised by seizures deserve a timely consultation at a full-service epilepsy center. Early referral provides the best opportunity to avoid irreversible psychological and social problems, a lifetime of disability, and premature death.

Оцінка ризику значної затримки розвитку дітей, які народились з дуже і надзвичайно малою масою тіла

Оцінка ризику значної затримки розвитку дітей, які народились з дуже і надзвичайно малою масою тіла

Clinical correlation between hearing impairment and developmental delay in infants: a prospective cohort study

Background: Significant hearing loss is a common disorder at birth, occurring in 1 to 6 per 1000 newborns. Hearing loss leads to delayed language development, difficulties with behavior and psychosocial interactions, and poor academic achievement. Universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) identifies congenital hearing loss at an earlier age, allowing for earlier interventions. This study aims to assess hearing of all newborns in our hospital, and to find the prevalence of hearing impairment to find out the delay in development for those babies with hearing impairment, and its correlation. Methods: A prospective cohort study conducted among 1000 newborns in our hospital that were screened for hearing loss. Hearing impaired babies were followed up and developmental assessment was done. Results: The prevalence of hearing impairment was found to be 0.5%. All the hearing impaired term new born had developmental delay in all four domains. Conclusions: Hearing impairment is a significant problem in newborn. Hearing impairment can cause delayed development in all domains. So all newborns should undergo hearing screening at birth, and should be kept under follow-up for developmental assessment.

Identifying Infants and Toddlers at High Risk for Persistent Delays.

Little is known about the extent to which a developmental delay identified in infancy persists into early childhood. This study examined the persistence of developmental delays in a large nationally representative sample of infants and toddlers who did not receive early intervention. In a sample (n ≈ 8700) derived from the early childhood longitudinal study, birth cohort, we examined developmental changes between 9 and 24 months. Motor and cognitive delays were categorized as none, mild, and moderate/severe. Adjusted ordinal logistic regression models estimated the likelihood of worse developmental delay at 24 months. About 24 % of children had a cognitive delay and 27 % had a motor delay at either 9- or 24-months. About 77 % of children with mild and 70 % of children with moderate/severe cognitive or motor developmental delay at 9-months had no delay at 24-months. Children with mild cognitive delay at 9-months had 2.4 times the odds of having worse cognitive function at 24-months compared to children with no cognitive delay at 9 months. Children with moderate/severe cognitive delay at 9-months had three times the odds of having worse cognitive abilities at 24-months than children who had no cognitive delay at 9-months. Similar results were found for motor skills. Developmental delays in infants are changeable, often resolving without treatment. This work provides knowledge about baseline trajectories of infants without and without cognitive and motor delays. It documents the proportion of children's delays that are likely to be outgrown without EI and the rate at which typically-developing infants are likely to display developmental delays at 2-years of age.

Correlation Between Mothers' Depression and Developmental Delay in Infants Aged 6-18 Months.

Background:Regarding the importance of children’s developmental status and various factors that delay their development, this study was conducted to examine the correlation between mothers’ depression levels and the developmental delay in infants.Methods:This descriptive study was performed on 1053 mothers and their infants’ age 6 to18 month-old in medical centers affiliated with Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2014-2015. The participants were selected through multi-stage random sampling. The following instruments were used in this study: A demographic and obstetric specification questionnaire, infant specification questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire to determine the status of the children’s development. The data were analyzed using SPSS19 software, Mann-Whitney; independent T-test and logistic-Regression tests were used.Results:The results showed that 491 mothers (46.7%) suffered mild to extremely severe depression. The delay in infant development was 11.8%. The Mann–Whitney test showed a correlation between mothers’ depression levels and developmental delay in infants (P=0.001). Moreover, there was a significant correlation between mothers’ depression and developmental delays in gross-motor and problem-solving skills (P<0/05). In logistic model age of infants showed significant correlation with developmental delay (P=0.004 OR=1.07), but unwanted pregnancy, gender of infants, type of delivery and socioeconomic status had no correlation with developmental delay.Conclusion:Given the correlation between mothers’ depression and infant development, it is recommended to screen mothers for depression in order to perform early interventions in developmental delay.

Developmental and Functional Brain Impairment in Offspring from Preeclampsia-Like Rats.

Preeclampsia is associated with developmental delay in infants and with an increased risk of various diseases in adulthood, including hypertension and epilepsy. It has been reported that several organs show developmental retardation and functional deficiency in offspring of preeclamptic rats. However, the developmental and functional changes in brains of the offspring of preeclamptic rats remain unknown. Here, we established a preeclampsia-like rat model induced using Nω-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME) to analyze the developmental and functional changes in brains of the offspring. Body and brain weights were decreased in the l-NAME group at postnatal day 0 (P0). However, there were no significant differences between the l-NAME and control groups in brain and body weights at P56. Upon further analysis, we detected a deficiency in neurogenesis, but not in apoptosis, which contributed to the smaller brains of the offspring in the l-NAME group at P0. Additionally, we observed an increase in gliogenesis to compensate for the brain weights of the offspring at P56. Although the weight and laminar structure of the brains were essentially normal at P56, spatial learning and memory were severely impaired. We also found that adult hippocampal neurogenesis was disrupted in the offspring from preeclampsia-like rats, which may explain the cognitive deficiency. Moreover, qRT-PCR revealed a reduced expression of neurogenesis-related genes in the offspring. Overall, we have described the deleterious effects of preeclampsia on the brains of offspring, providing clues to the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in this pathogenesis, which may aid in the development of therapeutic approaches.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12035-014-9060-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Prevalence of Motor Developmental Disorders in Children in Alborz Province, Iran in 2010

Background:Unlike developed countries, data from the developing world regarding motor developmental disorders is scarce.Objectives:In the present study, we used the Infant Neurological International Battery (Infanib) test to determine the prevalence of motor impairment in 4-18 month-old infants in Alborz province, Iran, in 2010.Patients and Methods:This study was a descriptive-analytic study performed on 6150 infants in Iran. The sample was recruited by convenience sampling from all 4-18 month-old children attended healthcare centers in different districts of Alborz province. Sampling was continued until reaching the desired sample size.Results:The sample included 3129 boys and 3021 girls. There was no significant difference between the scores of girls and boys (P = 0.403). The number of children with motor developmental abnormality varied depending on the considered cut-off points. In normative cut-off points, 3.7% had motor disorder, whereas based on the Iranian cut-off points, it was 6.5%.Conclusions:Providing an early detection and intervention system is an urgent public health problem due to the prevalence of motor developmental delay in infants living in Alborz province, because it indicates that most infants had been previously undiagnosed and untreated.

A parent questionnaire for developmental screening in infants born late and moderately preterm.

The Parent Report of Children's Abilities-Revised (PARCA-R) is a questionnaire for assessing cognitive and language development in very preterm infants. Given the increased risk of developmental delay in infants born late and moderately preterm (LMPT; 32-36 weeks), this study aimed to validate this questionnaire as a screening tool in this population. Parents of 219 children born LMPT completed the PARCA-R questionnaire and the Brief Infant Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment when children were 24 months corrected age (range, 24 months-27 months). The children were subsequently assessed by using the cognitive and language scales of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III). An average Bayley-III, cognitive and language (CB-III) score and a total PARCA-R Parent Report Composite (PRC) score were computed. There was a large association between PRC and CB-III scores (r = 0.66, P < .001) indicating good concurrent validity. Using Youden index, the optimum PARCA-R cutoff for identifying children with moderate/severe developmental delay (CB-III scores < 80) was PRC scores < 73. This gave sensitivity 0.90 (95% confidence interval: 0.75-1.00) and specificity 0.76 (95% confidence interval: 0.70-0.82), indicating good diagnostic utility. Approximately two-thirds of the children who had a PRC score < 73 had false-positive screens. However, these children had significantly poorer cognitive and behavioral outcomes than children with true negative screens. The PARCA-R has good concurrent validity with a gold standard developmental test and can be used to identify LMPT infants who may benefit from a clinical assessment. The PARCA-R has potential for clinical use as a first-line cognitive screening tool for this sizeable population of infants in whom follow-up may be beneficial.

Parenting Stress, Social Support, and Depression for Ethnic Minority Adolescent Mothers: Impact on Child Development.

Rates of teenage pregnancies are higher for African American and Latina adolescents compared to their White peers. African American and Latina adolescent mothers also experience more adversities than their White peers, such as higher rates of depression, school dropout, and economic disadvantage. Furthermore, children of adolescent mothers are at higher risk for adverse development. Parenting stress and social support can impact outcomes experienced by adolescent parents and their children. The present study examined the influence of adolescent mothers' parenting stress and perceived social support on maternal depression at baseline (six months after birth), and its impact on infant development one year later (18 months after birth). Participants were 180 adolescent mothers of African American or Latino/Hispanic descent. Results suggest that higher levels of parenting stress and less perceived social support were associated with higher levels of depression in the adolescent mothers at baseline. Higher levels of maternal depression were also associated with more developmental delays in infants one year post-baseline. Additionally, depression mediated the relationship between parenting stress and later child outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of examining parenting factors such as parenting stress, social support, and maternal depression in ethnic minority adolescent parents, and provide valuable information regarding unique risk and protective factors associated with positive maternal outcomes for ethnic minority adolescent parents and healthy development for their children.

Very preterm/very low birthweight infants’ attachment: infant and maternal characteristics

ObjectiveTo investigate whether there are differences in attachment security and disorganisation between very preterm or very low birthweight (VP/VLBW) (<32 weeks gestation or <1500 g birthweight) and full-term infants (37–42...

Vitamin B12 Deficiency: A Treatable Cause of Developmental Delay In Infancy

Neuronal regression and developmental delay in infants has varied aetiology, and vitamin B12 deficiency is a rare but treatable cause. Vitamin B12 deficiency in infancy is a rare but treatable cause of developmental delay and neuronal regression. Maternal vitamin B12 deficiency is usually secondary to pernicious anaemia or to a strict vegetarian diet and can cause serious neurological abnormalities among exclusively breastfed infants. Clinical picture include apathy, irritability, poor eye contact, lethargy, vomiting and feeding difficulties, developmental regression, hypotonia, tremor, myoclonic jerks, involuntary movements and seizures.1 Neurological manifestations usually appear between 2 and 12 months of age.2 Signs of cerebral atrophy have been detected on neuroimaging studies. Infants born to vitamin-B12-deficient mothers have a very limited hepatic stock of vitamin B12 and can develop symptoms within a few months. Persistent neurological damage can be prevented with early diagnosis and treatment.3, 4 Although supplementation of vitamin B12 appears to result in a rapid clinical improvement, there is a concern over long-term prognosis with cognitive impairment. It is important to emphasise that vitamin B12 supplementation during pregnancy should be provided for strict vegetarians and individuals with pernicious anaemia to avoid irreversible neurological damage.

Postpartum depression and child development in first year of life

The aim of the study was to investigate the characteristics of infant development at four, eight and twelve months of age, as result of postpartum depression. The prevalence of Postpartum Depression - measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale - at four months after delivery was 30.3%; at eight months, 26.4%; and at 12 months, 25.0%. Chi-square tests were used to compare children of mothers with and without Postpartum Depression in relation to developmental milestones. It was found developmental delay in infants of mothers with Postpartum Depression in: two interactional indicators at four months, two motor indicators at eight months and one gross motor indicator at twelve months. However, children of mothers with Postpartum Depression showed better results in one fine motor and in two language items at 12 months. The results point to the necessity of considering external and internal factors of mother and infant in the study of the effects of maternal depression on child development.

Predicting Factors of Developmental Delay in Infant and Early Children.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors associated with suspicious developmental delay in infants and early childhood.METHODS: Participants were 133 infants, aged from birth to 6 years old and their mothers, who were being seen at 16 Public health centers in B city. Korean Denver II was used to test infant development. chi2-test, Fisher's exact test and multiple logistic regression were used with SPSS 19.0 to analyze data.RESULTS: Of participant infants, 7.5% were below the 3rd percentile for the weight percentile, 8.4% is a weight curve that crosses more than 2 percentile lines on the growth charts after previous achievement, and 9.8% had suspicious developmental delay according to Korean Denver II. Further the predictive factors related to suspicious development delay in the children were decrease of weight percentile (Odds Ratio [OR]=6.69, Confidence Interval [CI])=1.22-36.45), low economic state (OR=6.26, CI=1.50-26.00), and developmental delay perceived by their mothers (OR=4.99, CI=1.24-20.06).CONCLUSION: It is necessary to build a government level system to follow management of development of infants and children from the time of birth. Especially, it is necessary to develop a program for children in low income families.

Evaluation of developmental delay in infants who came in for 6th month vaccination in Isfahan city health centers.

How to Cite this Article: Yaghini O, Danesh F, Mahmoudian T, Beigi B. Evaluation of Developmental Delay in Infants Who Came in for 6th Month Vaccination in Isfahan City Health Centers. Iran J Child Neurol 2012;6(2): 29-32. Objective Developmental delay is one of the most common causes of conferring the pediatric neurologist. The main part of neurological growth and development occur in the first two years especially in the first 6 months of life. Metabolic or skeletal diseases are important causes of developmental delay. Early diagnosis of deviance from the normal diagram of development in lower ages is important. Materials & Methods Specific ages and stages questionnaires (ASQ) for 6 months was completed in the health centers for 800 infants conferring for their vaccination in Isfahan and the retest was performed at 24 months of age by ASQ and then these two questionnaires were compared. Results 10.5% of the infants were delayed in at least one domain. At 24 months, 38.4% of them remained delayed; 21.1% in one domain, 9.6% in two domains, 3.8% in four domains and 3.8% in five domains. Of the children who had problem in communication, 20%; in gross motor, 25%; in fine motor, 20%; and in problem solving, 30% remained delayed. In the personal social domain, none of the delayed children at 6 months remained delayed at 24 months. Conclusion ASQ is feasible, inexpensive, easy to use and was appreciated by the parents. It can be used as a screening test for detection of developmental delay in lower ages, but its results must be followed by other standard tests or diagnostic tools. References Lewis R, Palfreg GS. The infant or young child with developmental delay. The New England J Med 1994;330:478-83. Cleary MA, Green A. Developmental Delay: when to suspect and how to investigate for an inborn error of metabolism. Arch Dis Child2005;90(11):1128-32. Schendel DE, Stockbauer JW, Hoffman HJ, Herman AA, Berg CJ, Schrann WF. Relation between very low birth weight and developmental delay among preschool children without disabilities. Am J Epidemiol 1997;146(9):740-9. Zimmer MH, Panko LM. Developmental status and service use among children in the child welfare system. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2006;160(2):183-8. Michael V. Johston, Encephalopathy in Nelson text book of pediatrics 181 E . 2007. Platt, MJ, Cans C, Johnson A, Surman G, Topp M, et al. Trends in cerebral palsy among infants of very low birth weight (<1500 g) or born prematurely (<32 weeks) in 16 European centres: a database study. Lancet 2007; 369(9555):43-50. Robertson CM, Watt MJ, Yasui Y. Changes in the prevalence of cerebral palsy for children born very prematurely within a population-based program over 30 years. JAMA. 2007;297(24):2733-40. Lindsay NM, Healy GN, Colditz PB, Lingwood BE. Use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire to predict outcome after hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy in the neonate. J Pediatr Child Health 2008; 44(10):590-5. Yu LM, Hey E, Doyle LW, Farrell B, Spark P, Altman DG et al. Evaluation of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires in identifying children with neurosensory disability in the Magpie Trial follow-up study. Acta Paediatr 2007;96(12):1803-8. 10. Squires J, Bricker D, Potter L. Revision of a parent completed development screening tool: Ages and Stages Questionnaires. J Pediatr Psychol. 1997;22(3):313-28. 11. Glascoe FP. Screening for developmental and behavioral problems. Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev 2005;11(3):173-9. 12. Richter J, Janson H. A validation study of the Norwegian version of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires. Acta Paediatr 2007;96(5):748-52. 13. Shashani S, Vameghi R, Azari N, Sajedi F, Kazemnejad A. Comparing the results of developmental screening of 4-60 months old children in Tehran using ASQ & PDQ. Iran Rehabil J 2011;11(14):3-7. 14. Shashani S, Vameghi R, Azari N, Sajedi F, Kazemnejad A. Validity and reliability determination of Denver developmental screening test- II in 0-6 years old in Tehran. Iran J Pediatr. 2010;20(3):313-22. 15. Jorina E, Andrew M, Elaine M, Faitb G. The Age and Stage Questionnaires: feasibility of use as a screening tool for children in Canada. Can Rural Med. 2008; 13(1):9-14. 16. Gollenberg AI, Lynch CD, Jackson LW, Guinness BM, Msall ME. Concurrent validity of the parent-completed Ages and Stages Questionnaires, 2nd Ed. with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development IIin a low risk sample.Child Care Health Dev 2010;36(4):485-90.

Mother–father differences in screening for developmental delay in infants and toddlers

PurposeIn most cases, caregiver questionnaires are completed by mothers and seldom by fathers. Although parents tend to have moderate to high congruence, some studies suggest that differences between the mothers’ and the fathers’ answers can complicate diagnostic decision-making. The aim of this study was to determine mother–father response differences on a widely used screening checklist and to describe possible clinical implications of the observed differences. MethodThe Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile Infant–Toddler Checklist, a screening and evaluation tool, is commonly used in many countries to identify developmental delays in infants and toddlers. A Croatian version of the CSBS-DP checklist was completed by 422 parents (211 mothers and 211 fathers). The mean age of children was 15.4 months (6–24 months). Inter-rater reliability and mother–father differences were calculated. An item-by-item analysis was performed, and the relationship between the parental concern and the score a child achieved was also examined. ResultsMothers and fathers did not differ in Total Scores (p=.165). Item-by-item analysis showed that the level of congruence between mothers’ and fathers’ scores was, on average, 78%. However, in 10–15% of cases, the parent scores placed a child in different clinical categories (above vs. below the cut-off score). In cases of discordance, fathers placed a child below criterion level more often than mothers, and this trend was more pronounced for girls than boys. The level of parental concern was found to be relatively low and not well balanced with the scores children achieved. ConclusionOur findings suggest that the level of parental concern is not a very reliable indicator of delayed or deviant childhood development. Furthermore, in 10–15% of cases, parents differ in the extent to which their responses place a child in different clinical groups.Learning outcomes: The reader will: (1) recognize the importance of early communication skills assessment in infants and toddlers; (2) identify the possible limitations of relying on a single parent report in screening infants and toddlers; (3) describe the factors that might affect screening results when caregiver questionnaires are used; (4) be able to better assess parental concern.

Prevalence and Patterns of Developmental Delay in Multiple Gestation Preterm Infants (P07.138)

Objective: To determine the prevalence and pattern of developmental delay in infants born preterm and as multiple gestation, and explore the frequency of iron deficiency. Background Most studies exploring the adverse neurodevelopmental effects of preterm birth, multiple gestation, and iron deficiency have only calculated an overall developmental quotient (DQ) without examining individual developmental domains. Design/Methods: This retrospective study involved a review of medical records of patients 3-36 months of age who were evaluated by a neurodevelopmental specialist (ITJ) in a neonatal high-risk follow-up clinic between July 2005 and December 2011. Patients who were born preterm at Results: Forty patients with mean corrected age of 11.7 month (SD of 6.60 and mean gestational age of 30 weeks (SD 3.5) with mean birth weight 1300 grams (SD 484). The sample was comprised of 31 twins and 9 triplets. 68% of patients had some form of developmental delay. Expressive language delays were most prevalent (45%), followed by gross motor (40%), total DQ (37.5%), visual motor (25%), total language DQ (22.5%), and receptive language delay (20%). Of 21 patients with iron studies, 28% were iron deficient; however, there were no significant statistical differences in the DQ of various domains between iron-deficient and iron-replete patients. Conclusions: Infants born preterm and as multiple gestations have high prevalence of significant developmental delays which involve most frequently expressive language. One fourth of babies with iron studies had iron deficiency, but no differences were noted in DQ compared to iron-replete babies. Disclosure: Dr. Sibley has nothing to disclose. Dr. Jarjour has nothing to disclose. Dr. Jarjour has nothing to disclose.

Deformational plagiocephaly is associated with developmental delay in toddlers

Deformational plagiocephaly is associated with developmental delay in toddlers