Babies born between 32-35 weeks at higher risk of behaviour problems

Children born before their due date are more likely to have behavioral difficulties or emotional problems when they start nursery.

Babies who are born very prematurely – before 32 weeks – are known to have more behavioral and emotional difficulties than those born at full term.

But according to the new research published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, babies born only slightly early – between 32 and 35 weeks and classified as “moderately premature,” still risked developing problems.

Dutch researchers from the University Medical Centre, in the Netherlands, looked at more than 1,500 children whose emotional development and behavior had been assessed at the age of 4 and were part of the The Longitudinal Preterm Outcome Project.

Of these, 600 were born at term and under 1,000 born between 32 and 35 weeks of pregnancy.

The moderately preterm children scored higher than their full term peers when assessed against seven different behavioral and emotional conditions.
 
The authors say these preterm children could benefit from targeted help, concluding:  “Our results demonstrate that moderately premature children are more likely to already have behavioral and emotional problems before they enter school.”