Slow growth in babies

Babies all have a certain development rate, and babies with developmental delays will be at a disadvantage compared to their peers in the future. Therefore, if parents find that their baby has developmental delays, they must provide certain physical adjustments to the child. Infant developmental delay also includes many aspects, such as motor nerve developmental delay, intellectual developmental delay, or social and emotional developmental delay.

1. Development of motor nerves

This includes skills like holding the head upright, sitting up, crawling, standing, and walking. We have statistics on this, but there is a huge difference between completely healthy and normal babies.

Several rare disorders interfere with the development of motor nerves, but these disorders can usually be diagnosed by a doctor.

In most cases of slow motor development, this is simply a normal variation.

2. Intellectual Development

It is especially important for children with slow motor development to understand that this has little to do with intelligence. Nine times out of ten, infants whose motor development is obviously slow will eventually have normal intelligence. By the way, the growth tests that are sometimes done on infants (especially in the case of adopted children) are mainly tests of motor skills and social responsiveness. These tests can show whether a baby's brain is diseased or injured, and whether the baby is suffering emotionally due to neglect. But apart from these situations, they do not say anything about the child's future intelligence in the first year. What is it. Intelligence, which must be associated with the abilities of reasoning and memory, cannot be reliably measured before about the age of 2.

Intelligence, in contrast to motor development, has much more to do with the environment than with heredity. Babies born to mentally retarded parents who are adopted by normal or happy families tend to develop intellectually like their adoptive parents.

3. Social and Emotional Development

Some of it probably depends on the temperament the baby is born with - whether they are quiet or active - but most of it is determined by their experiences. There is no evidence that traits like alcoholism, dishonesty, meanness, and laziness are hereditary.

Babies who are developing slowly certainly need to be checked regularly by their doctors to make sure there are no illnesses or conditions that need correction. This is especially true if your child is not only delayed in motor development but is also slow to respond to people and things around them. At a minimum, they should consult a pediatrician, an ophthalmologist, and an ear specialist.