Children with Low Birth Weight

Normal birth weight ranges between 2,500 and 3,500 grams.

Children with low birth weight are born under 2,500 grams.

Neonatologists identify infant birth weights the following way:

• 1500 grams to 2500 grams = ‘low birth weight’(LBW);
• 801 grams and 1499 grams = ‘very low birth weight’ (VLBW);
• 800 grams or under= ‘extremely low birth weight’ (ELBW).

Most children born with low to extremely low birth weight are also pre-term or premature, that is, that they were born under 39 weeks of gestational age.

To learn about the implications of having a low birth rate in the middle childhood years, please visit the six to 12 part of this course.