Peer-reviewed article
Assessment of Post-Discharge Growth Pattern After Initial Growth Faltering and Its Association with the Neurodevelopment Status in Preterm Infants: A Cohort Study.
Ariadna Witte Castro, Celia Diaz Gonzalez, Susana Ares Segura, Miguel Saenz de Pipaon ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study followed preterm infants after hospital discharge to understand how growth patterns in the first weeks of life affect later development. Infants who lost significant weight early on (growth faltering) continued to weigh less and scored lower on developmental tests at age 2 compared to infants without early weight loss. The findings suggest that poor early growth in preterm infants is linked to ongoing growth and developmental challenges through the second year of life.
Key points
- Infants with growth faltering remained below their birth weight z-scores through 24 months of age, while non-growth-faltering infants caught up by 2 years
- At 2 years, infants with growth faltering scored lower on language development assessments (84.5 vs 88.5, p=0.03)
- Motor development scores were significantly lower in the growth-faltering group on Bayley-III testing (85 vs 94, p=0.03)
- Growth faltering was defined as loss of more than 1 weight z-score from birth to 36 weeks postmenstrual age
- The study followed 115 infants with growth faltering and 85 without growth faltering through 2 years corrected age
Limitations
The study does not identify the causes of growth faltering or test specific interventions to prevent it. The Bayley-III test results are based on only 35 infants, limiting the generalisability of motor development findings.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Preterm infants are at risk of growth faltering at term age. Our primary objective is to assess post-discharge growth patterns in these infants and investigate the association between growth faltering and neurodevelopment. METHODS: We divided the sample into two groups according to growth during the initial hospital stay: infants who suffered from growth faltering (GF, loss of >1 weight z-score from birth to 36 weeks postmenstrual age, n = 115) and infants who did not suffer from GF (non-growth faltering, NGF, n = 85). RESULTS: The NFG group weight z-score was significantly lower at 36 postmenstrual ages (PMA) compared to birth (p < 0.001), at 1-year corrected age (CA), it was significantly higher than at birth (p = 0.0026), and by 2 years CA, there were no differences compared to the birth z-scores. In the GF infants' group, statistical differences were found at all time points. At 3 and 6 months, CA GF infants were still in weight z-score values lower than -1 point compared to the birth median value. At 12 and 24 months CA, they still had not achieved birth z-score values (p < 0.001). In the Parent Report of Children's Abilities-Revised (PARCA), NGF infants had a higher score in the language development scale at 2 years than GF infants (88.5 [78.5; 96.5] vs. 84.5 [69.5; 91.5], p = 0.03). The Bayley-III test was available for 35 infants. We found a significant difference in motor development, with a higher score in the NGF group (94 [88; 100] vs. 85 [79; 91], p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort study, GF is associated with growth differences till 2 years CA, and with lower scores in neurodevelopment assessment.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Observational monitoring of post-discharge growth patterns and neurodevelopmental outcomes in preterm infants
- Population
- 200 preterm infants (115 with growth faltering, 85 without) followed to 2 years corrected age
Key finding
Growth-faltering infants remained significantly below birth weight z-scores at 12 and 24 months corrected age (p<0.001), while non-growth-faltering infants returned to birth z-scores by 2 years
Castro et al. · PubMed (US National Library of Medicine) · 28 Dec 2025