Why use corrected age

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Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Adjusted age, also called corrected age, is the age a preemie would be if they had been born on their due date.

Doctors use adjusted age when evaluating a preemie's size and development. For example, if your baby was born early, your child's doctor will use their adjusted age to determine when they should reach certain milestones.

Chronological age is not used as a benchmark for preemies because these infants may not have developed functions that babies born at term typically have, such as breathing on their own and maintaining their body heat. To determine your baby's adjusted age, start by figuring out how many weeks or months early your baby was born. Then, subtract that number from their actual age. Subtracting the months early an infant was born provides the baby with a more appropriate timeline for reaching certain milestones.

An infant who is 4 months old but was born 2 months early may be at a weight and stage of development that is closer to that of a 2-month-old infant.

Therefore, the baby's corrected age is 2 months old. Preemies may exceed expectations and skew closer to their actual birth date or fall behind even their adjusted age projections.

There isn't any hard and fast rule about how long you should use your preemie's corrected age. First, in terms of weeks, consider how old your baby actually is. If your baby was born June 1, they arrived about 2 months, or 9 weeks, early. To find the corrected age for your baby, simply take the actual age and subtract the weeks preterm. In the above example, if your baby is actually 13 weeks old, but was born 9 weeks early, their corrected age is 4 weeks or about 1 month.

Why is it important to adjust for prematurity? The corrected or adjusted age gives you a better idea of how your baby is tracking with their milestones. It can mean that despite being behind their actual age, your baby is still on track. They may not meet all of them until their corrected age is 3 months, and their actual age is around 5 months. The use of chronological age instead of corrected age for infants born prematurely may result in incorrect interpretations regarding the adequacy of a child's growth or developmental progress and has the potential to negatively affect care.

This study examined the frequency and impact of the use of corrected age by primary care providers. Primary care providers used an electronic health record that defaulted to chronological age information.