Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov;35(6):748-757.
doi: 10.1111/ppe.12798. Epub 2021 Jul 13.

Early postnatal growth and subsequent neurodevelopment in children delivered at term: The ELFE cohort study

Marion Taine  1   2 , Anne Forhan  1 , Andrei S Morgan  2   3   4 , Jonathan Y Bernard  1   5 , Hugo Peyre  6   7   8 , Marie-Noëlle Dufourg  9 , Laetitia Marchand Martin  2 , Marie-Aline Charles  1   9 , Jérémie Botton  10 , Barbara Heude  1
Affiliations

Early postnatal growth and subsequent neurodevelopment in children delivered at term: The ELFE cohort study

Marion Taine et al. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2021 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Despite the limited evidence, accelerated early postnatal growth (EPG) is commonly believed to benefit neurodevelopment for term-born infants, especially those small for gestational age.

Objectives: To investigate the existence of critical time windows in the association of EPG with neurodevelopment, considering birth size groups.

Study design: In the French ELFE birth cohort, 12,854 term-born neonates were classified as small, appropriate or large for gestational age (SGA, AGA, LGA, respectively). Parents reported their child's development by using the Child Development Inventory (CDI-score) at age 12 months and the MacArthur-Bates Development Inventory (MAB-score; 100 score units) assessing language ability at age 24 months. Predictions of individual weight, body mass index (BMI), length, and head circumference (HC) from birth to age 24 months were obtained from repeated measurements fitted with the Jenss-Bayley mixed-effects model. For each infant, conditional gains (CG) in these growth parameters were generated at four-time points (3, 6, 12 and 24 months) representing specific variations in growth parameters during 0-3, 3-6, 6-12, 12-24 months, independent of previous measures. Using multivariable linear regression models, we provided the estimate differences of the neurodevelopmental scores according to variation of each growth parameter CG, by birth size group.

Results: For SGA infants, the MAB-score differed by 5.8 (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.2, 11.8), 6.7 (95% CI -0.1, 13.3), and 9.7 (95% CI 1.9, 17.5) score units when CG in BMI, weight, and HC at 3 months varied from -2 to 1 standard deviation, respectively. For all infants, MAB-score was linearly and positively associated with length conditional gains at 12 months, with stronger magnitude for SGA infants. Results for the CDI-score were overall consistent with those for MAB-score.

Conclusions: For term-born SGA infants, moderate catch-up in HC, BMI and weight within the first 3 months of life may benefit later neurodevelopment, which could guide clinicians to monitor EPG.

Keywords: appropriate for gestational age; early postnatal growth; large for gestational age; neurodevelopment; small for gestational age.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

REFERENCES

    1. Karlberg J, Albertsson-Wikland K. Growth in full-term small-for-gestational-age infants: from birth to final height. Pediatr Res. 1995;38:733-739.
    1. Villar J, Smeriglio V, Martorell R, Brown CH, Klein RE. Heterogeneous growth and mental development of intrauterine growth-retarded infants during the first 3 years of life. Pediatrics. 1984;74:783-791.
    1. Luo ZC, Albertsson-Wikland K, Karlberg J. Length and body mass index at birth and target height influences on patterns of postnatal growth in children born small for gestational age. Pediatrics. 1998;102:e72.
    1. Lundgren EM, Cnattingius S, Jonsson B, Tuvemo T. Intellectual and psychological performance in males born small for gestational age with and without catch-up growth. Pediatr Res. 2001;50:91-96.
    1. Varella MH, Moss WJ. Early growth patterns are associated with intelligence quotient scores in children born small-for-gestational age. Early Hum Dev. 2015;91:491-497.

Publication types