development of full term twins delayed?

[Ivygalore]

Hi ladies. my twins were born almost 38 wks and were healthy and went home with me on day 3. they are both getting breast milk and we just started solids at 5 months.

with respect to development, they're very different from my older singleton. they will be 6 months old on the 23rd and one is rolling a little while the other is not rolling at all. is it typical for twins to be developmentally slower than singletons? my singleton was rolling over at 2.5 months (seriously, i kept a journal so i know it's accurate).

we have a pedi appt in two weeks so i'll ask the pedi about it. are there any exercises that i can do with them to help their motor skills?

[GailGoldie]

There is a HUGe range of normal for things like that. Stop comparing them or u will go insane.

Twins don't develop slower bc they are twins but all babies will do things when they are ready. 1 of my twins didnt roll until almost 7 mo. No biggie.

Don't think about it. It will happen and if there is something to worry about your pedi will notice.

[Ivygalore]

thank you so much! i do know that kids develop differently --lots of education in that area. when it comes to my own kids though, it seems that all of my education and training goes away. i'll try to calm down a bit.

[floridakat]

My girls were born at almost 38 weeks, and they've been very normal on both motor skills and verbal skills. They vary some from each other, as you would expect from fraternals, but they aren't delayed. In fact, they're somewhat ahead of the scale on verbal now. But I don't think there's any reason why twins would be delayed just because they're twins.

[psyck]

Ditto PPs. There is a HUGE range when it comes to development. Even with my twins, one got his first two teeth at least six weeks before his brother did.

[bettydraper]

Ditto PP's. My babies are 36 weekers and were actually early or right on target with all their milestones (except walking, they just started walking @ 13 months), but they didn't get their first tooth until DS-9 months and DD-10.5 months. I have nothing to compare it to, but its seems like there's a very wide range of "normal" for every child.

[Hunter]

Actually I am going to stray from the pack and say bring it up to your pediatrician. My girls were 35 weeks but that isn't the reason, nor is twins the reason, but they are very delayed in their gross motor. I did start to notice it with my girls at six months because as you said, my son was doing things like sitting

Finally at their nine month appt I pointed it out again to my pediatrician (who was concerned because they can't get on all fours let alone crawl). She said that there are hip muscles etc that are underdeveloped and she referred me to the DC early start program for an evaluation. They came and told us that at ten months they had the gross motor skills of a five month old. And because they were 50% delayed they qualified or physical therapy. They said they like to identify the delays as early as possible because the sonner you start the PT the sooner they can get them caught up.

I am pointing it out because like everyone else on this thread everyone kept telling me oh their fine and they woll do it in their own time, but as teir mother and having already had another child I just knew something was different. Trust your gut, your their mom and you know. Good luck!

[flutepharm87]

We have our boys in EI because of prematurity to help with their developmental delays and we were told that them being twins could contribute to some of their delay issues. Not saying that all of you BTDT MoMs are wrong, but we were told that because you're splitting your time amongst 2 kids that each child is getting less time to work with you than a singleton would.

It doesn't hurt to bring it up to the pediatrician though. You never know, there might be something to it. Or, it could be that your LOs are just on their own timeline and everything's fine. I would bring it up, if only to make myself feel better about everything.

[colleens629]

May 19, 2012 9:42:26 GMT -5 flutepharm87 said:

We have our boys in EI because of prematurity to help with their developmental delays and we were told that them being twins could contribute to some of their delay issues. Not saying that all of you BTDT MoMs are wrong, but we were told that because you're splitting your time amongst 2 kids that each child is getting less time to work with you than a singleton would.

It doesn't hurt to bring it up to the pediatrician though. You never know, there might be something to it. Or, it could be that your LOs are just on their own timeline and everything's fine. I would bring it up, if only to make myself feel better about everything.

This makes sense to me. I noticed that when I started spending more time working on milestones with them that they picked them up quicker. Obviously if I had a singleton, I'd be able to spend twice as much time. They rolled belly to back on their own and pretty early... around 2 months. They didn't start rolling back to belly until around 6 months. I started helping them roll both ways around 5 months to help them figure it out.

[Jack10]

Sorry I don't know how to quote yet but to the above statement about twins an splitting time, that actually makes no sense to me. If that were the case than every kid who is a second or more, every kid in daycare where a daycare provider splits time between three infants, in all these cases the babies would be delayed according to that statement.

I get that these two are your first and I really don't think the doctor needs to propogate anymore twin guilt. Yes, you probably aren't spending the time you may have if there was one but it sounds more that you just needed to be taught/reminded how to work with them
in specific ways.

These delays occur plenty with singletons, in fact more so according to my kids physical therpist. She said she rarely sees twins. I hope the tone of this doesn't come across wrong, truly conversational but my kids have been with the same daycare as my singleton since they were three months old, receiving the same attention individually as him and they are still 50% delayed.

[colleens629]

May 23, 2012 20:14:33 GMT -5 @Jack10 said:

Sorry I don't know how to quote yet but to the above statement about twins an splitting time, that actually makes no sense to me. If that were the case than every kid who is a second or more, every kid in daycare where a daycare provider splits time between three infants, in all these cases the babies would be delayed according to that statement.

I get that these two are your first and I really don't think the doctor needs to propogate anymore twin guilt. Yes, you probably aren't spending the time you may have if there was one but it sounds more that you just needed to be taught/reminded how to work with them
in specific ways.

These delays occur plenty with singletons, in fact more so according to my kids physical therpist. She said she rarely sees twins. I hope the tone of this doesn't come across wrong, truly conversational but my kids have been with the same daycare as my singleton since they were three months old, receiving the same attention individually as him and they are still 50% delayed.

The twins are my only children but I have a lot of experience with babies/ children and working with them on milestones, including working with delayed twins. With your own kids, I do think it's different having 2 high needs infants than having one infant and an older child. Of course, every family and every situation is different, though.

[Jack10]

Right, two kids same age vs. one older one younger is different, in some ways easier and in some ways harder like anything else. My point remains the same, an infant daycare provider deals with three infants at the same time that are the same age (and in our case within two weeks of our twins). It's not because their twins or the simple fact that they are two babies that they are delayed relating to what your doctor said about them not receiving enough time or their time being split. Plenty of children are in care with other kids their age and don't develop delays from this. Working with other peoples children is different than having your own and as you said, every family is different. But you've never had a singelton and you've never had an older kid with a younger one so it is a little har to say that you would be spending twice the time resulting in no delays. Some kids are just delayed, happens and its misguided to propogate the twin guilt of first time moms that are already struggling day to day with twinfants to make them feel like its their fault for not being able to spend more time with them. It's more to do with prematurity etc.

[colleens629]

May 26, 2012 13:52:31 GMT -5 @Jack10 said:

Right, two kids same age vs. one older one younger is different, in some ways easier and in some ways harder like anything else. My point remains the same, an infant daycare provider deals with three infants at the same time that are the same age (and in our case within two weeks of our twins). It's not because their twins or the simple fact that they are two babies that they are delayed relating to what your doctor said about them not receiving enough time or their time being split. Plenty of children are in care with other kids their age and don't develop delays from this. Working with other peoples children is different than having your own and as you said, every family is different. But you've never had a singelton and you've never had an older kid with a younger one so it is a little har to say that you would be spending twice the time resulting in no delays. Some kids are just delayed, happens and its misguided to propogate the twin guilt of first time moms that are already struggling day to day with twinfants to make them feel like its their fault for not being able to spend more time with them. It's more to do with prematurity etc.

I never said that twins = delays. Someone else said their pedi said that could contribute. I said that that possibility made sense to me. That's all. I'm not propagating anything. Calm down.

[macchiatto]

My boys were born at 37w6d. One of them ended up in Early Intervention and has gotten OT, PT and feeding therapy; the other has been right on track with all his milestones. If you have concerns, I'd bring them up with your pediatrician but I agree not to compare them with each other; find out what the range of normal is for each milestone and focus on that.

[everam01]

Mine were born just short of 37 weeks and hit almost every milestone early. I was a basketcase for a while so I know it wasn't due to any awesomeness from me. When it comes to gross motor, I think it was just happen for babies naturally as long as you are giving them adequate tummy time.