Happy birthday, Nash! GWR checks in with most premature baby as he turns two

The world’s most premature baby, Nash Keen (USA) – who was born at a gestational age of just 21 weeks in 2024 – will celebrate his 2nd birthday on 5 July.

Two years ago, Nash – or “Nash Potato” as he also goes by – was delivered at University of Iowa Health Care in Iowa City to Mollie and Randall Keen.

As a newborn, who arrived 133 days earlier than anticipated, he weighed in at a mere 285 g (10 oz) – less than a grapefruit– and measured just 24 cm (9.5 in) long.

It was a very scary time for the family – as his mom, Mollie, told GWR last year: “He was born so early that we weren’t sure if he’d even survive those first critical hours…” She described the first few days as being “a blur of fear, uncertainty and hope”.

Nash had to spend six months at a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before – thanks to the stellar efforts of his care team and his own remarkable resilience – being discharged in early 2025. In many ways, the Keens haven’t looked back since. Nash was officially recognized as the world’s most premature baby on turning one on 5 July 2025.

Fast-forward another year and, in the leadup to his second birthday, GWR spoke to Mollie to find out how Nash and the family have been getting along.

First of all, though, we were “keen” to hear what they have in store to see in Nash turning two years old. “We plan on having a small gathering with our closest friends and family to celebrate him. To be honest, I’m actually shocked I don’t have a specific theme picked out already!” Mollie admitted.

“I’ve been so focused on his everyday milestones and his health that the time has just flown by. I truly look at him and can’t believe he is two already. It feels like a lifetime ago that we were in the NICU, yet the time has gone by in the blink of an eye. We are just so excited to surround him with the village that has helped him get here.”

So, just how has the record-breaking Nash Potato been doing? “Nash is doing absolutely incredible and making us so incredibly proud!” she revealed. “Just by looking at him, you’d never guess that he was born at 21 weeks’ gestation. Today, he weighs a healthy 25 lb [11.3 kg] and is tracking right in line with full-term babies on the standard growth charts.

“His language is blooming; he’s recently started saying several more words and loves showing off by mimicking different animal sounds. (‘Baaa’ or ‘Quack quack’ are our favourites).”

In terms of his development, Nash has come a long way since we were last in touch, as Mollie explains: “Looking back over the last year, a few milestone moments of progress truly stand out. Nash has worked incredibly hard on gaining the core strength to sit up entirely on his own, which opened up a whole new world for him. In the last few months, he graduated to crawling and he has the tough toddler knees to show for it!

“Another huge area of progress has been with his feeding. Because Nash is fully G-tube dependent for his nutrition, seeing him start to explore the tastes of different foods has been amazing. He even took a few bites of real food recently, which was such a fun and rewarding victory for us to witness after all his hard work in therapy. Ranch might be his favourite! No judgment!”

While Nash has been coming on leaps and bounds, Mollie admits that there’s still no room for complacency when you’re a parent of a premie (premature baby).

“Even with all his amazing progress, this journey still brings unexpected hurdles. Nash was actually just recently hospitalized for a week due to a severe respiratory illness, which brought a whole new set of challenges,” she revealed.

“Because he’s so active now that he’s a toddler, trying to keep him contained to a hospital crib or our laps when all he wanted to do was get down and crawl was incredibly difficult. On top of the physical exhaustion, watching his oxygen saturations tank every time he fell asleep was terrifying.

“Being back in that hospital setting is always deeply triggering and draining for our entire family, serving as a reminder of how quickly things can change with a chronic lung condition.”

Fortunately Nash’s recovery was well in time for his second birthday so he won’t be missing out on any presents and special treats and will be able to enjoy the occasion at home.

With a whole year’s extra experience since we last caught up, we were interested to hear if Mollie’s outlook or approach to parenting a premature baby had changed in any way?

“Now that we have almost two years under our belt, the absolute biggest lesson I’ve learned is to stop comparing Nash to other babies. Every child’s timeline is different, but a micro-preemie timeline is uniquely their own.

“For other micro-preemie parents, my biggest piece of advice is to remember that the journey isn’t over just because you left the hospital. Expect the challenges, because they will come, but don’t let them steal the joy of the victories.”

Nash isn’t the only record-breaking baby to have recently celebrated a big birthday – the first surviving nonuplets – recently turned five and were preparing to go to primary school in Mali.

For more tales about incredible human beings, check out our dedicated Human Body news page.