Long-term care, from neonatal period to adulthood, of children born small for gestational age

Abstract

Children born small for gestational age (SGA) face an increased risk of health problems in later life, particularly persistent short stature, neurocognitive dysfunction, impaired renal and pulmonary function, decreased bone density, sensorineural hearing loss, premature adrenarche, and metabolic syndrome. Insulin resistance appears to be a key component underlying these metabolic complications. Long-term, continuous, GH treatments in short children born SGA lead to a normalization of height through childhood to adulthood. Recombinant human GH has been proven to be relatively safe. We recommend early surveillance in a growth clinic for children born SGA without catch-up growth. Obesity, insulin resistance, and the risk of metabolic syndrome increase with catch-up growth, but short stature and cognitive dysfunction increase without catch-up growth in children born SGA. A solution to this catch-up dilemma is breast feeding for a minimum of 6 to 12 mo. Because the overall prevalence of metabolic risk factors is very low, routine evaluation of metabolic parameters is not recommended for all children born SGA, but it may be useful to consider metabolic evaluations in overweight or obese children born SGA. Since children born SGA have many risk factors, long-term management from neonate to adulthood is very important.

Keywords: cognition; growth; metabolic syndrome; small for gestational age.