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Food mineral composition and acid-base balance in preterm infants

Hermann Kalhoff1, Friedrich Manz, Peter Kiwull

  • 1Paediatric Clinic, 44137 Dortmund, Germany. hermann.kalhoff@klinikumdo.de

European Journal of Nutrition
|May 5, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Preterm infants

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal physiology
  • Pediatric nutrition
  • Renal function

Background:

  • Preterm infants have immature renal capacity for acid excretion, increasing risk of metabolic acidosis.
  • This can lead to impaired growth and bone mineralization.
  • Dietary factors significantly influence acid-base balance in this vulnerable population.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how diet composition affects renal regulation and acid-base balance in preterm infants.
  • To analyze acid-base data from blood and urine under various feeding regimens.
  • To understand the impact of mineral and protein content on infant metabolism.

Main Methods:

  • Collected data from 82 preterm infants on different diets: mother's milk (native or fortified) and standard or modified preterm formulas.
  • Measured food intake and determined acid-base parameters in blood and timed urine samples.
  • Analyzed the relationship between dietary composition and renal acid-base regulation.

Main Results:

  • Dietary mineral differences created significant variations in daily alkali intake.
  • Renal base excretion showed a strong, significant correlation with individual dietary alkali intake (P < 0.0001).
  • Blood acid-base parameters (base excess, PCO2) were not significantly affected by diet variations.

Conclusions:

  • Renal mechanisms effectively compensate for dietary acid-base load differences in preterm infants.
  • Urinary acid-base analysis is a more sensitive indicator of nutritional challenges than blood analysis.
  • Reducing the acid load in standard preterm formulas is recommended due to infants' limited renal acid excretion capacity.
Abstract

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