Small-for-gestational age infants: perinatal, physical and social factors in the first year of life.
Perinatal factors and physical development in the first year were studied in a group of 30 small-for-gestational age (SGA) infants and matched controls. Mothers of small-for-gestational age infants were significantly lighter (p less than 0.01), had shorter labours (p less than 0.01), had higher reported caffeine intake (p less than 0.01) and were more likely to have smoked in pregnancy than mothers of control infants (p less than 0.05). Small-for-gestational age infants had lower ponderal indices (p less than 0.001), were more likely to exhibit head sparing at birth (p less than 0.02) and to be short-for-dates (p less than 0.001), and to have had hypoglycaemia in the first 24 hours (p less than 0.02). Their growth trajectories exhibited growth catchup in the first 3 months but at 12 months they remained lighter, shorter and had smaller head circumferences than the control infants (p less than 0.001) with mean weight and length percentiles of 23% each in small-for-gestational age infants and 50% and 57% in appropriately grown infants.
Department of Psychology, University of Auckland.
J
J
Watt
D000328:Adult; D001724:Birth Weight; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002508:Cephalometry; D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007236:Infant, Small for Gestational Age / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy