Can doctors tell if a baby has progeria before it is born?

Unlikely: Progeria syndrome is considered a sporadic (new mutation) phenomenon that has few prenatal indicators. At an average birth wt of 6lb (2.7kg), the relatively small size during gestation is not specific to this disorder. There are rare instances of siblings to normal parents, showing that an autosomal recessive form exists.Most begin to show signs by 6-18mo.

Progeria: Not normally, usually the infant appears normal. Progeria is caused by a new genetic mutation. However, there are some inherited cases (rarer) due to mosaicism in a parent. This can occur when a parent who does not have progeria has a small percentage of cells that have that the genetic mutation. In that case, genetic testing could help to determine gene structure.