Bilateral hand use during infancy in very low birth weight infants.
Yuu Uchio, Tetsuo Ikai
PMID 40322577WHAT IT FOUND
Very low birth weight infants under 1,000 g reached toy transfer later than infants with birth weight 1,000 to 1,499 g, with middle ages of 6.4 and 5.8 months.
No clear difference was seen for playing with both hands together or grasping two toys.
Key findings
01Infants with birth weight under 1,000 g achieved transferring a toy between two hands later than infants with birth weight 1,000 to 1,499 g.
02The middle age for toy transfer was 6.4 months in the under 1,000 g group and 5.8 months in the 1,000 to 1,499 g group.
03No clear difference was found between groups for playing with both hands together or grasping two toys, one in each hand.
STILL TO COME
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What it does not show
The study was retrospective and single-center, so it cannot show that birth weight alone caused the difference. Only 57 infants were analysed after 47 of 104 were excluded, so the groups are small. The under 1,000 g group had more respiratory and neonatal illness than the 1,000 to 1,499 g group, so medical complications may explain part of the delay. All infants were followed in a developmental outpatient department and may have received developmental support, so timing may reflect care as well as natural development. The study excluded infants with cerebral palsy, chromosome abnormalities, malformation syndromes, neurological disorders, deaths, prolonged surgical hospitalization, or lost follow-up, so the ages may not apply to those infants.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the later toy-transfer age as proof that birth weight alone caused delayed hand use. The study was retrospective and small, and the under 1,000 g group had more neonatal illness and ongoing developmental outpatient care, so other factors may have influenced timing.