Children born before their due date are more likely to have behavioral difficulties or emotional problems when they start nursery.<\/p>\n
Babies who are born very prematurely \u2013 before 32 weeks \u2013 are known to have more behavioral and emotional difficulties than those born at full term.<\/p>\n
But according to the new research published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, babies born only slightly early \u2013 between 32 and 35 weeks and classified as \u201cmoderately premature,\u201d still risked developing problems.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0part of the The Longitudinal Preterm Outcome Project.<\/p>\n
Of these, 600 were born at term and under 1,000 born between 32 and 35 weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n
The moderately preterm children scored higher than their full term peers when assessed against seven different behavioral and emotional conditions.
\n\u00a0
\nThe authors say these preterm children could benefit from targeted help, concluding:\u00a0 \u201cOur results demonstrate that moderately premature children are more likely to already have behavioral and emotional problems before they enter school.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Children born before their due date are more likely to have behavioral difficulties or emotional problems when they start nursery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol-news"],"yoast_head":"\n