By Dave Andrusko

Although the story is not time-sensitive, I apologize for not sharing this with you earlier. I just ran across two most encouraging news account, based on research done on “micropreemies,“ published in the journal Pediatrics by University of Iowa neonatologist, Dr. Edward Bell.

Dr. Bell, who founded the Tiniest Babies Registry in 2000, discovered that although survival of infants born weighing less than 400 grams is still rare, the number is increasing. (400 grams is just under a pound, roughly the size of a potato.)

“The registry now lists 111 tiny babies born worldwide since 1936 who survived until hospital discharge,” reports McClatchy Newspapers. And, most encouraging, the University of Iowa researchers’ report found that “micropreemie survival stories have increased each year since the early 1990s.”

According to Reuters, the inspiration for the survey was a baby girl (patient #11) who was born at Iowa university weighing just 359 grams. “When our patient survived, I began to look around to see what other tiny survivors had been reported," Bell explained.

With the assistance of colleagues, Bell scoured the medical literature, the lay press (including the Guinness Book of World Records), and the Internet to track down the 110 infants born between 1936 and 2010.

“All of the registry babies weighed between 260 and 397 grams after spending 22 to 34 weeks in their mothers' wombs,” according to Reuters. “Most of the babies in the current report were born in the U.S. after 1990 and the number of tiny infants who survived each year increased through that decade and the next.”

Among the babies’ health problems are glaucoma, cerebral palsy, chronic lung disease, and developmental disorders, according to the registry.

Commonsensically, it was the baby’s gestational age that appeared to be more important than strictly the birth weight. "A normally-grown 400-gram baby would be approximately 19 weeks along in pregnancy, which is 3 to 4 weeks before reaching a level of development that allows even a chance of survival outside the womb," Bell said. Put another way, while very small for their gestational age, these babies were “more fully formed than an average 400-gram fetus.”

Overwhelmingly, females dominated the population of micropreemie survivors— the ten smallest, and three-quarters altogether. Researchers speculated it “might have something to do with hormones and their effects on the maturation of the lungs and other key organs,” according to Reuters. “Girls typically reach puberty at a younger age than boys, noted Bell, hinting that they might develop more quickly in utero as well.”

The registry of tiny babies--which can be found at www.healthcare.uiowa.edu/tiniestbabies -- continues to grow. Bell told Reuters, “Undoubtedly, there are more that have not yet made it to the Registry," adding, "In fact, I found another baby shortly after the article went to press. Patient #111 is not included in the paper, but he is the smallest boy to survive at 274 grams."

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