NICU Follow-up Clinics

Children that are born early (premature), require early surgery, or have serious illnesses around birth have special care needs as they transition home. Our clinic is here to help families and support primary care providers with these unique medical and developmental needs.

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For all requests:

1-888-573-5437

University of Iowa Healthcare’s multidisciplinary pediatric teams—made up of experts in neonatology, neurology, cardiology, physical therapy, nutrition, and more—are dedicated to helping your baby grow, develop, and thrive.

NICU Medical Follow-Up Clinic

The NICU Medical Follow-Up Clinic manages the ongoing medical conditions or babies who were born preterm and/or have complex medical issues in their first two years of life.

We are here to support your baby on their journey home and help you feel comfortable with any special care your baby needs. Together with your primary care provider, we will also assist you in coordinating other specialty care your baby needs at UI Health Care. All babies in our medical follow-up clinic also receive developmental testing to make sure they are meeting their milestones. Some conditions we manage include:

Chronic lung disease of prematurity, also known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)

We manage oxygen by nasal cannula, lung medication, home monitoring with pulse oximeter and we arrange RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) prophylaxis if eligible.

Pulmonary hypertension due to BPD

If your baby has high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs (or pulmonary hypertension), we will help manage their chronic pulmonary hypertension medications and work with pediatric cardiology and pulmonology to support the heart and lung function of your baby as they grow.

Systemic hypertension (high blood pressure) due to abnormal relaxation of the heart

In collaboration with pediatric nephrology, we will manage your baby’s oral anti-hypertensive medication. This collaboration is the first of its kind and uses echocardiograms along with serial monitoring to best support your baby’s heart and lung health.

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)

In collaboration with pediatric ophthalmology, we offer home oxygen suppression for ROP. Oxygen suppression can reduce the need for additional laser surgery if your baby has worsening ROP.

Feeding dysfunction or disorders

We work collaboratively with dietitians and speech therapists to support your baby on their feeding and growth journey. We will create feeding plans for babies who are slow to gain weight or need nasal gastric tube feedings as they work towards eating by mouth.

Screening for hepatoblastoma

Infants born at less than 1,000 g (2 pounds 3.2 oz) are at a small increased risk of a serious liver condition, called hepatoblastoma. We offer a blood test (AFP) to screen for this condition at 3, 6, 9, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 36, 42, and 48 months of months of age.

NICU Graduate Developmental Follow-Up

Our team are experts on the developmental challenges babies and young children may face after requiring neonatal intensive care. We will work with your family to support your child’s developmental progress and refer them for therapy and other developmental services as needed.

We use specific developmental testing to assess the progress of your baby. By catching and addressing any potential issues early we can help maximize your baby’s developmental progress. Early intervention in the first couple years of life is most effective because the connections in a child’s brain are very adaptable.

Monitor skill development in cognition (learning and understanding), motor skills (sitting, walking, or picking up a toy), and speech skills.
Autism screening
Hammersmith Neurological Testing: Assess muscle tone (extra floppy or stiff muscles)
General Movement Assessment: early cerebral palsy detection

Cardiac Neurodevelopment Follow-Up

The Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Follow-Up Program is for children with complex congenital heart disease. The NICU Follow-Up Clinic works together with the pediatric cardiology team for your child’s care.

Because heart problems and surgery may increase the risk for developmental problems, it's important that our pediatric cardiology experts monitor your child as they age. We will look to see how your child grows, learns, and develops. Some challenges may appear earlier, while others appear later. The best outcomes occur when any delays are found early. Together, our team and cardiology will decide if any other support or programs can help your child.

Preschool Neurodevelopment Follow-up Clinic

When children are discharged from NICU Development Follow-up Clinic and/or Medical Follow-up Clinic and would benefit from continued developmental assessment and support, they transition to our Preschool Neurodevelopment Follow-up Clinic.

At this clinic, preschool-aged children (2-5 years old) who are at higher risk for behavioral, developmental, and academic difficulties due to early life medical condition(s) are evaluated by a psychologist. During a visit, a psychologist will ask about your child’s health and assess your child development and behavior with standardized tests. These evaluations can make sure your child is on track for school and, if challenges are found, help get services in place to give every child the best start to school.