So first let me tell you what a preterm baby is. Ababy who is born before 37 weeks of gestation we take it as a pre-term baby. A baby who is born before 37 weeks is not supposed to be born the baby was not supposed to come out the baby was supposed to stay inside. So sometimes it can be a little difficult to manage a baby as compared to a term baby . Depending upon the gestation of the baby, that means that depending upon how early the baby is born, the pediatricians or the neonatologists decide if the baby should be sent to the mother's side or should be admitted to the ICU and the baby might need support. Most of the neonatal intensive care units have a guideline and that depends unit to unit most of them admit babies born less than either 34 or 35 weeks or whose weight is less than 1.8 or 2 kgs into the NICU. Any baby who is above this age, that this gestation or the weight they are shifted to the mother's side. Now there are a few things that you need to take care of when it comes to a pre-term baby . Pre-term babies or babies who are small for their weight, which is low birth weight babies a low birth weight babies who's less than two and a half kgs of weight such babies have low subcutaneous fat. So these babies are prone for hypothermia which means that the babies might not be able to maintain their body temperature. If the temperature of the hands and feet is as warm as the tummy of the baby then it means that the baby is normal. If the hands and feet is cold and the tummy is warm it means that the baby is going into cold stress which may eventually lead to full blown hypothermia which will eventually go there so you have to make sure that you rub the hands and feet put on socks and mittens and put some warmer clothes on the baby. Make sure that in winters especially you use woolen clothes and not just cotton clothes. You have to make sure that sometimes even if the baby is wrapped properly the baby might not be able to maintain the body temperature. In that scenario you can do something called skin to skin contact or KMC to maintain the baby's body temperature so what you do here the baby's naked body is brought in contact with the mother and around them a shawl or sweater or a blanket and this way the mother is trying to give the warmth from her body to the baby's body. So this way also the baby's body temperature is maintained so hypothermia is one thing second thing is feeding very important babies who are born preterm might not be able to feed like a term baby feeds. Why again because the baby was not supposed to come out the baby was supposed to stay inside. So feeding can be a little tricky in these babies in terms, that this the coordination between sucking and swallowing appears generally between 34-35 weeks and if your baby is born at that time you will notice that the baby doesn't swallow the milk properly . The baby might not latch at the breast the baby might not suck longer even if the baby's sucking might suck for like a few seconds and then sleep off or the baby might not finish the entire feed that baby is supposed to take. So what we recommend is that you breastfeed the baby and after that you pump out your breast milk using a breast pump or manually and then you top feed the baby with the palada. This way you ensure that the baby has taken the adequate amount of feed because you know once the baby is breast feeding you wouldn't know how much the baby has taken and like I said the baby might not breastfeed really well so you give measured feeds to the baby and the third thing is infection very important any baby for that matter is prone for infection because their immunity is low . Preterm babies all the more so you have to follow the same guidelines you wash your hands with soap and water you sanitize your hands make sure that who's coming in contact with the baby is healthy and not sick and so the basic hygiene guidelines have to be followed. How to raise a preterm baby - I have talked about how to care for a preterm baby. Raising a preterm baby maybe would be the same as the term baby. The only thing that you have to be a little vigilant about is the development of the baby so at 3-6-9 months post birth, you make sure that the baby is either evaluated by a Pediatrician or a Developmental Pediatrician to see how the development is going and then every time the baby comes for vaccination. You can keep checking and monitoring the growth in terms of height weight and head circumference of the baby.

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