[Birth weight: a cause for concern over both the short and long terms].

Suggested citation: Rugolo LM. Birth weight: a cause for concern over both the short and long terms. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2005;81:359-60. Low birth weight has always been a cause for concern among healthcare professionals because it is associated with greater neonatal and infant morbidity and mortality. The set of infants born weighing less than 2,500 g is heterogenous, since the condition is the result of two adverse conditions prematurity and/or intrauterine growth restriction – which can act in isolation or in synergy and to varying degrees. In developed countries low birth weight children are predominantly premature, while in developing countries they are small for gestational age infants born to term, i.e. they have suffered an intrauterine growth restriction. Therefore, classified as low birth weight we find newborn infants who have had their intrauterine growth interrupted, but with two distinct diagnoses, for which risk factors and both short and long term prognoses vary.1