angela writes.....

 "another question why does ECI stop correcting his age at a year old?
I have alwasy thought it to be closer to 2yrs that preemies were supposed to
be caught up by is this incorrect? thanks in advance"

a child is never really any other age than what they are....any adjustment or
"correction" is used as a way to more gently and fairly regard the infants
development in discussion , (it is giving consideration to developmental
challenges of preemies).....the chronological age of the child is always what
is recorded, though, and the differences between chronological age and levels
of performance.  preemies may be evenly delayed in all areas, making it
purposeless to 'prematurely' assume the delay is due to anything other than
early delivery.  more difficult diagnoses are usually not assigned to the
child so early, until they start showing consistent differences in development
in one or more areas (i.e.  perceptual/finemotor, gross motor,
social/emotional, language/communication, selfhelp skills, etc.)

and as far as catching up, there is not a time frame for this.  in general,
males mature neurologically slower than females...but this evens out between
the ages of, say, 18-24 years of age......with a preemie, when considering
"catching up", you'd want to think about how many of the systems of their body
are challenged, i think.  to give you an idea of the complexity of that
answer, not having met chris,
consider the areas of development (like those listed above) interacting, and
building upon each other as each month passes....when there is a problem in
even one of the areas, normal development has a challenge.  when more than one
area is involved, the challenge becomes a bit more complex, as all areas of
development interact and build upon one another.  and when it comes to certain
systems, (i.e. you are mentioning metabolism at the cellular level), problems
like that can affect cellular development equally devastatingly throughout the
body.  if development of brain cells and function is affected by a metabolic
disorder (as possibly indicated in the abnormal muscle tone), the delay is not
necessarily catch-uppable.....
it is probably the best advice to stop thinking about "catching up", to
mentally let go of the age and performance comparisons....and just focus on
who your baby really is right now - enjoy the things chris can do...

the abnormal tone and the mitochondrial stuff sounds heavy....  keep me
posted...

suzyqqt....