For at least two years after the premature birth of your child,  there is special care that you should take for your child to keep them constantly out of danger and away from all kinds of ailments and illnesses. You must develop a right set of parenting guidelines to help your child best.As far as the growth and development of your prematurely born baby goes; the usual advice given to parents is that they feed them a lot of vitamins and iron to help them develop as strong babies and stay as healthy as they can.

Especially iron is an important nutrient that premature babies often lack and so make sure that for at least a year your baby has iron drops regularly to keep him or her strong. However, do not worry that your child is too small and may not develop properly. For the first two year they are usually weaker and smaller than most other children but with proper care they catch up with the other kids soon and begin to develop normally.

You should however maintain a proper chart for measuring the development and growth of your child and keep consulting the doctor in set intervals to chart your child’s progress.

The feeding schedule of your premature baby is also very rapid. For the first few months your child will need at least eight to ten feeds a day and there should not be a gap of more than three to four hours between each feed as otherwise your child’s body could get dehydrated. Your child should consistently be gaining weight; if you see that they have stopped doing so then contact your doctor immediately. You can switch to giving your baby solid food after about six months of their due date; not the date that they were actually born.