JGZ-richtlijn ‘Te vroeg en/of small for gestational age (SGA) geboren kinderen’

Conflict of interest and financial support: disclosure forms provided by the authors are available along with the full text of this article at www.ntvg.nl, search for A6745; click on ‘Belangenverstrengeling’ (‘Conflict of interest’). The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development provided a subsidy (subsidy no 156000009) to the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research department Child Health for the development of a guideline for the aftercare of preterm and/or SGA born children for child health care professionals.

• In children who are born prematurely or whose birth weight is too low for gestational age (small for gestational age (SGA)) intensive care and follow up are desirable.However, obstacles include the shared care of children born very preterm (< 32 weeks of gestation) by paediatricians, general practitioners, youth health care service (and other professionals) and the identification of possible late onset health problems in children born late preterm (32-37 weeks of gestation).

• This guideline is multidisciplinary and evidence based and is relevant to all professionals involved in the care of this group of children.

• The main recommendations are: (a) timely and complete transfer of information after discharge from hospital; (b) structured exchange of information in aftercare; (c) assigning a case manager to each child; (d) monitoring growth and development by adjusting age for preterm birth, and (e) using special growth charts for children born preterm to evaluate growth and development.