Using a corrected age is important in terms of understanding when your wins will reach developmental milestones in the first few years. So between 2 and 3 years old adjusted age isn’t really an issue anymore. Generally, your twins will have ‘caught up’ by about 2.5 years old. How long do you need to take into account the adjusted age? Don’t worry, the corrected age isn’t something you need to use forever. (And speak up! You are your twins’ best advocate.) How Long Do You Use Adjusted Age? If you have concerns about how your twins are developing you need to talk to their pediatrician about it. Remember that your twins are individuals and will not hit every milestone at the same time. There are a lot of factors that go into milestones and there are ranges for what is considered ‘normal.’ As your twins get older the corrected age may become less and less of a factor too. Your twins might hit some milestones ‘on time’ and others late, just like full term babies. While adjusted age can be helpful in understanding why twins might hit milestones late, it is important to remember they might not. So talk to your doctors to determine if an adjusted age calculation is needed. Your doctors will know best based off what they have seen from other patients and what they know about your pregnancy. We used 37 weeks as our full term pregnancy length. Because of this my doctor and my twins’ pediatrician recommended going off of actual age in terms of meeting milestones. They were Mo/Di, meaning they shared a placenta. You will need to ask your doctor and your twins’ pediatrician. So how do you know which term length to use to calculate your twins’ adjusted age? You subtract 5 weeks from their actual age to get their adjusted age. This means if your baby was born at 32 weeks, they are only 5 weeks early. The general thought is that twins are considered full term at 37 weeks. (The placenta will tire out faster if it is supporting two babies.) What type of twins do you have? Sharing a placenta can change what is considered full term for your twins. Twins? There are more variables to take into account. Get tips on surviving your twin pregnancy by clicking here! But for adjusted age, 40 weeks is the given. 37-38 weeks is early term, 39-40 is term, and 41-42 is late term. Singleton pregnancies pretty much stick to the 40-week model. Why is that? Because twins don’t have the same clear cut timeline to be considered full term. Twins don’t always have the same straightforward calculation that singletons do. Of course, when you add another baby into the mix things just get more complicated. While this baby is almost 4 months old, you would expect them to be hitting 2 month old milestones. So when their actual age is 16 weeks, the equation would look like this:ġ6 weeks (actual age) – 8 weeks (premature) = 8 weeks (adjusted age) If your baby was born at 32 weeks, they were born 8 weeks early. Using an adjusted age gives a more realistic timeline for hitting milestones.Īctual Age – Weeks Premature = Adjusted Age It is unrealistic to think they will be at the same developmental points as a baby who has had those extra 8 weeks.Īdjusted ages are just used to take into account the fact that your premature babies had less time in the womb to develop. In terms of overall existence, your 8 week early twins have had 8 fewer weeks to grow and get strong. This makes sense, they missed out on 8 weeks of development inside the womb. But if your twins were born 8 weeks early, they might still be a bit wobbly at 4 months. Short answer? Adjusted ages give a more accurate picture of where your twins should be in terms of development taking into account the fact that they were born early.įor example, four month old babies usually have pretty good head control. Once they have had that developmental time they can start to work on skills that babies develop as they age. As a result, they need to make up this time after birth. When babies are born prematurely they miss time in the womb when they would be developing. What Is an Adjusted Age?Īdjusted age is when you take into account that your twins were born early. And one thing to keep in mind during your pregnancy through the baby years is the adjusted age of your twins. Somehow two babies add up to so much more. But babies are babies, their needs are all basically the same.īut in other ways, it is a whole new ballgame (besides just using the word singleton now). In some ways, it is no different than being a parent to a singleton. Having twins throws you into a whole new world. What Is Considered Full Term for Twins?.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |