A FIGHTER: GABRIEL’S FIRST YEAR

Brain bleed Gabriel Strang, who weighed only 840 grams at birth, spent more than three months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Mount Sinai Hospital. He had a brain bleed — fortunately, not severe — and episodes of skipped breaths and slowed heart rate, common among premature babies. He required three blood transfusions, hernia surgery and he battled infection. Infection He needed strong antibiotics to fight the post-surgery infection. But his veins were so tiny that he went through 11 intravenous sites on his arms and feet in one day, says Claridge. So doctors put a picc line, a flexible tube for intravenous access, into the side of his head so he could get the medicine. Feeding tube With such small babies, the challenge is being sure they get enough calories. Gabriel was fed breast milk through a tube in his mouth, then through his nose while he practiced at the breast. At first, he was so small he would expend more calories sucking than he consumed. Nursing Heather Claridge and Natalie Strang spent 16 hours a day in the NICU with their son. Claridge gave birth and Strang took domperidone under a doctor’s guidance to induce lactation so she was also able to supply breast milk and eventually nurse Gabriel. Going home Finally, Gabriel went home on Dec. 3, 2013, when he was more than 3 months old. He weighed 6 pounds. During that winter, his mothers didn’t take him out in public, worried he’d pick up viruses. Healthy toddler Gabriel’s growth has been slow but steady. By age 1, he weighed 14.5 pounds. Now 2 years old, he weighs 19.5 pounds, putting him in the first percentile. He is 30 inches, the fifth percentile. There are no developmental delays.