Pediatric developmental milestones

Question

Hello, I hope you are doing well! I have a question about developmental milestones for Pediatrics patient. Would a patient be developmentally delayed if he/she got diagnosed with a chronic disease or only would be considered developmentally delayed if the diagnosis was early in infancy- toddler years?

Answer 1

The chronic illness in and of itself would not be considered a developmental delay, but a chronic illness can cause developmental delays. An example would be a cerebral palsy patient that was delayed in the developmental walking or crawling milestone. It is fair to say that a chronic illness in a young child/pediatric patient increases the risk for developmental delay depending upon the illness.