Infant Weighed 18 1/2 Ounces at Birth : ‘Preemie’ Goes Home With Her Parents

Claudia Felix, one of the smallest babies ever to survive birth, went home from Valley Presbyterian Hospital Thursday after a farewell party from nurses who had grown attached to the tiny infant.

After almost seven months of care in the hospital’s nursery, she weighed an even 6 pounds--less than many babies at birth.

She weighed 18 1/2 ounces when she was born last July, 14 weeks premature. Two days later her weight dropped to 13 ounces, just 3 ounces more than the smallest infant ever known to have survived, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. A twin brother died after 41 days.

Grandmother Knit Dress

Doctors who specialize in newborn infants said that she was the smallest infant to survive at Valley Presbyterian Hospital and the smallest they had ever heard of at a San Fernando Valley hospital.

She wore a pink dress, knit by her grandmother, as she left the hospital with her parents, Ignacio and Maria Felix of North Hollywood. The nurses who cared for her presented the infant with a red, heart-shaped balloon bearing the words, “We’re proud of you, Claudia.”

The outlook for her “is very good,” a hospital spokeswoman said, although she still has respiratory problems because of her premature birth. She must continue to receive oxygen through a tube in her nose. She also wears a monitor that sounds an alarm if she stops breathing, alerting her parents to apply stimulation to make her resume breathing, the spokeswoman said.