Physical and developmental status of preschool small-for-gestational-age children: A comparative study

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the current developmental and physical status of preschool children identified from hospital records as being small-for-gestational-age (SGA) at birth. Sixty-seven children were compared with a matched group of appropriately grown (AGA) children. Mothers of SGA children were more likely to have smoked during pregnancy, to have suffered pre-eclamptic toxaemia (PET), and to have had shorter labours than the AGA group. They were less likely to have breast-fed their babies, and reported higher incidences of eating problems and visits to the general practitioner. On physical and developmental parameters the AGA group was significantly ahead of the SGA group. For all subjects breast feeding was correlated with higher Stanford Binet scores, and environmental factors appeared more salient for the progress of the SGA children at this age than biological factors. The results are discussed with regard to possible amelioration of the effects of being born small for gestational age.