The Check-up Update: Good News!

As I've mentioned before, premature babies are at a greater risk for future health problems than healthy full-term babies. These babies also have a greater likelihood of developing breathing, vision or hearing problems and varying degrees of neurological problems, which may only show up when they are older. So, follow-up care is needed to make sure any other issues are dealt with as soon as possible.

Last week, Emma had her first appointment at the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic at CHEO. The clinic has a multidisciplinary team that provides an ongoing assessment of NICU graduates' needs and the issues they face. The team coordinates the children's care with medical specialists and community resources as needed. Last week we met with a team composed of two nurses, a staff pediatrician, and a physiotherapist. The team reviewed Emma's history and current status, measured and weighed her, and gave her a medical examination. They also used an Infant Development Scale to assess Emma's cognitive, language, personal-social, and motor development. Basically, the team watches Emma do a number of activities to see if her thinking, language, and motor skills are similar to children her own age (Emma was "asked" to do things a typical 6-month old would do, as her corrected age is almost 6 months).

The different scales look at how well the babies think, react, and learn; communicate and recognize sounds; and use their hands and fingers to make things happen. Infants are given tasks that measure their interest in new things, their attention to familiar and unfamiliar objects, and how they play with different kinds of toys. They are observed throughout the assessment for various forms of non-verbal expressions such as smiling, jabbering expressively, and laughing. They are given items that measure their recognition of sounds, objects, and people in the environment, and are assessed for muscle control such as following movement with their eyes, bringing a hand to their mouth, and reaching and/or grasping an object.

The good news is that Emma's scores on all of the measures were within normal limits. So, compared to other 6-month old babies, Emma is right on par! Her "weakest" area was motor development (something we've already noticed). The team was not concerned by this, as these results are expected of a micropreemie, but we now have some exercises/activities to do with Emma to build up her upper extremity strength. She and Mommy now have daily "work-out" sessions :)

Emma also had an audiology follow-up appointment at CHEO last week. Last time she had a hearing test, the results showed that Emma had mild to moderate hearing impairment related to a fluid build-up in her ears. The docs felt that it would most likely resolve on its own, and last week's results showed exactly that. Emma's hearing is now completely normal!!!

Next week, Emma has appointments with the Ophthalmologist and the E.N.T. specialist. Let's hope their news is as good!!!

For your viewing pleasure, I've included a pic of Emma after her first taste of carrots. So far, they proved to be her favourite meal -- even though she used some of them as a facial :)




And here is further proof of how much our girls look alike: Miss Emma enjoying her carrots:



and Miss Michaela enjoying peas (picture taken 3 years ago):