preemie-l New Subscriber
Elyse Schwimer Davis (esdavis@ix.netcom.com)
Tue, 11 Jun 1996 22:00:33 -0700
I am a new subscriber, the mother of two preemies, Skyler was 6 1/2
weeks early, he just turned 4 years old. Our daughter was 7 weeks
early, Kaitlin is 22 months old. She spent 7 weeks in the NICU, the
most memorable 7 weeks of our lifes!!
Kaitlin was born at 4 lbs. 8 ozs. but began to lose weight a day after
her birth like most new borns. I was having some problems after my
c-section and Kaitlin was basically doing OK. A few days after her
birth we noticed blood in her diaper. Soon therafter, after being
evaluated by numerous doc's she was diagnosed with "necratizing-
entracolitis" (excuse the spelling), symptomized as bleeding from the
intestins. The cause of this problem was unknown, it could have been
virus related or bacterial. She dropped down to about 2 lbs. and had
two blood transfussions. Because the cause of her problem could not be
pinpointed, she was put on massive amounts of antibiotics and universal
precautions, in semi-isolation. She was taken off all food and only
fed through an I.V. until she healed, this took 6 weeks!! Needless to
say, we sent 7 weeeks, day & night at the hospital. We got a hotel
room across the street as so we could visit any time, which included
may 3:00 a.m. visits!
Now, Kaitlin is doing great medically, she has entered the terrible
two's albeit a little early and keeps up with her 4 year old brother
with no problem. My experience is that she became a real fighter in
the hospital and the experience will forever be imbedded in her
personality.
I am interested in the experience of others with development of
preemies, she is far behind others her age in her speech development.
Is this a common experience of others? What can a parent do to help
these kids catch up. Any advice would be helpful.
I look forward to hearing from you all!
Elyse Davis & the Davis Family