Modern society has seen an increase in the incidence of preterm births due to the delay in the age of childbirth resulting in an increase in advanced maternal age, an increase in the proportion of artificial insemination and abortions, and an increase in the stress of pregnant women’s lives and work during pregnancy. Every year, 1.5 million babies are born prematurely worldwide, and the value is on the rise. With the rapid development of perinatal medicine and neonatology in China and the common establishment of neonatal intensive care units, the survival rate of premature babies and low birth weight babies has increased significantly, and premature babies not only have small weight and head circumference, but also have difficulty in keeping up with the level of resistance and intelligence of normal babies and need special attention. If a baby is born at less than 37 weeks of gestation, it is medically known as a preterm baby. The average birth weight of a preterm baby is less than 2,500 grams. Because premature babies are not sufficiently developed, they are given special care and treatment in a hospital neonatal care center after birth. The immaturity of preterm infants is manifested in six ways: 1. They cannot maintain normal body temperature, so preterm infants need to be incubated in a warm box. 2. labored breathing or apnea. Immature lungs affect the preterm infant’s breathing and often require artificial ventilators and some special medications to help them mature. 3, The liver function of preterm infants is immature, so skin jaundice appears early and to a greater extent. If phototherapy and other measures are not taken in time to control the process of jaundice, irreversible damage to the brain can occur – medically known as bilirubin encephalopathy. 4, premature infants with immature liver function can also lead to systemic hemorrhage, especially cerebral hemorrhage and intestinal hemorrhage. Maintaining stable body temperature, normal blood sugar and stable breathing in preterm infants is the basis for preventing bleeding. 5, nutrition is the basis of human survival. But preterm infants often cannot suck normally and need a thin tube inserted into the stomach for feeding, and normal breast milk or formula cannot meet his needs, requiring the addition of breast milk additives to breast milk. Even intravenous nutrition is needed. 6. The immune system of newborns is immature, and this is especially true for premature babies. Systemic infections are the most likely conditions to occur in preterm infants. Immunoglobulin injections and necessary antibiotics can prevent and control infections. Once the “six hurdles” have been overcome, it is possible for the preemie to be discharged home. When the baby is in the hospital, the whole family will be worried and anxious about the baby; but when the baby is about to be discharged from the hospital, the whole family will be in a mess and don’t know what to do. The reason is that the parents do not know how to take better care of the thin child at home. After the premature baby is discharged from the hospital, the doctor should work together with the parents to pay attention to the child’s health. Areas of concern include: 1. Patient feeding Feeding is the foundation of growth and development. Due to the painful ordeal that a thin baby goes through after birth, all aspects of ability are poorer than normal babies, as shown by the lack of strength to eat milk. As the child has a small mouth, a suitable nipple should be chosen; as the sucking power is insufficient, patient feeding should be done. Generally, at the early stage of discharge, a feeding takes more than 30~40 minutes. Moreover, the child often falls asleep during breastfeeding. You can wake up the child by stroking the ear and finish the feeding. Due to the immaturity of the cardia muscles that control the entrance to the stomach, vomiting after feeding can easily occur. When this phenomenon is encountered, the child should be placed in the lateral position. At this time, the corner of one side of the mouth is low, the vomit retained in the mouth is easy to flow out of the mouth. Tip: Don’t hold the child vertically, so the vomit stored in the mouth will choke into the airway and cause aspiration pneumonia. 2. Vaccination When the child weighs 2000 grams, you can consider implementing vaccination. Since children have different birth weights and experience different disease processes, there is a large difference in how early or late they reach 2,000 grams. Future vaccination procedures can only vary from person to person, and a special vaccination schedule will be developed for your child by your doctor. Parents should visit their local health department to have their child vaccinated according to this special schedule. Tip: Before vaccination, tell your doctor that your child is a preemie and remind him to plan and take measures accordingly. 3, home medication because premature babies are born immature, after birth incubation treatment process will promote organ function gradually mature, but still will remain some problems. For example: anemia, bone dysplasia (such as rickets in preterm infants), chronic lung function abnormalities (such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia), abnormal visual development (such as retinopathy of prematurity), etc. Since each child is different, the child will take or inhale some medications after being discharged home from the hospital. It is not an easy task to give medications to small infants. With the permission of the doctor, some medications can be given along with milk at the same time, which will ensure that they are taken. Tip: For inhaled medications, this should be done before breastfeeding to avoid vomiting. 4. Developmental assessment (1) Growth and development: Since the birth weight of preterm infants varies greatly, how to evaluate his growth and development used to be a difficult task. Now there are growth charts for preterm infants, which can help us to make a correct assessment. The horizontal coordinate of the graph is the actual week of gestation at birth. When the child grows to the mother’s due date – 40 gestational weeks – the growth chart for normal infants can be used instead. When using the normal infant growth chart, care should be taken to use corrected monthly age for assessment. Corrected age = age at birth – (40 – gestational weeks at birth)/4. For example, if a baby is only 32 weeks gestational weeks and is now 3 months old, his corrected age = 3 – (40 – 32)/4 = 1 month. At this point, the child’s height, weight and head circumference can be compared to the age of 1 month in the table of normal infant growth curves. The corrected age is used until the child reaches 24 months (2 years). (2) Audiovisual development: Before the child is discharged from the hospital, the hospital should conduct the first hearing screening for preterm infants. Parents should always ask the doctor about the results. If the screening is not passed, it should be retested according to the doctor’s arrangement. If the screening has been passed, parents should also pay attention to their child’s response to sound. Any concerns should be followed by another hearing screening or diagnostic evaluation. The re-screening or diagnostic evaluation should be done in the ENT department. Retinal vascular development is often immature in premature infants, a condition known as retinopathy of prematurity. It is now well established that preterm infants with a birth weight of less than 1,500 grams should be screened for retinopathy of prematurity at 4 to 6 weeks after birth. Prompt treatment of problems identified can prevent or reduce the appearance or extent of future abnormalities in the child’s vision. (3) Respiratory function: For infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia, respiratory therapy should be performed under medical supervision. Only persistent treatment can improve the child’s future condition. (4) Behavioral development: Premature infants are also born with various abnormalities in the process of brain development. Regular checkups with a doctor experienced in guiding the child’s growth and development are necessary to identify problems and provide early intervention and correction in a timely manner. As long as the child does not have brain hemorrhage, congenital brain development abnormalities and other genetic or severely damaging brain diseases within the first month of life, there should be no significant difference between the child’s behavioral development and that of normal children after receiving regular guidance from a physician. (5) Social skills: Since the child was born prematurely, the parents will treat him with extra love and care. They are reluctant to contact other children or adults to avoid respiratory infections, etc. This often affects the development of his social skills. Good socialization is very beneficial to the development of the infant’s brain. Premature babies have experienced life and death as soon as they arrived in the world and deserve the attention of parents, doctors and the community during their future growth. Scientific and progressive early interventions should also be implemented under the guidance of doctors. With everyone’s attention, premature babies can grow and develop like healthy children in the future, and go to society and grow up to be adults.