A tiny baby girl from San Diego, California now holds the record for the tiniest baby to survive. Baby Saybie was born the end of December of last year weighing about as much as a juice box. After a five-month stay in the NICU unit of Sharp Mary Birch Hospital she went from her birth weight of 245 grams to a whopping 2540 grams or 5.6 pounds.
University of Iowa Healthcare maintains a register of all the infants who were born with a birth weight of under 400 grams who have survived. The list has 217 names on it with records of under-400 grams preemies that survived going all the way back to 1936. Besides the US, Japan and Germany are the two countries that have the best success at helping micro preemies survive.
The smallest baby boy to survive was born in Japan last August and had a birth weight of 258 grams. The survival rate among very small babies is significantly lower for boys than for girls. The University of Iowa’s list shows that all but six of 25 babies worldwide who survived after being born weighing less than 300 grams were girls.
The tiniest baby from Minnesota to survive had a birth weight of 320 grams when she was born in 2002. By 31 months of age she weighed 8800 grams or 19.4 pounds.
As things continue to progress one wonders just how small preemies will be able to survive.
Sources:
https://webapps1.healthcare.uiowa.edu/tiniestbabies/index.aspx
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