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Published on: February 15, 2018
[Nutrition and growth follow-up in the preterm infant]
Penny Gobalakichenane1, Delphine Mitanchez
1Service de néonatologie, hôpital Armand-Trousseau, AP-HP, université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Paris.
Insights
Optimizing nutrition for premature infants is crucial for growth. Early enteral and parenteral nutrition, fortified human milk, and individualized feeding plans support catch-up growth, often achieved by one year of age.
Area of Science:
- Neonatology
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Developmental Pediatrics
Context:
- Premature infant nutrition is critical for optimal short- and long-term outcomes.
- The goal is to replicate fetal growth postnatally.
- Extra-uterine growth restriction requires proactive nutritional management.
Purpose:
- To review current recommendations for premature infant nutrition.
- To emphasize the importance of early and optimized nutrient delivery.
- To guide nutritional strategies from hospital discharge onwards.
Summary:
- Early enteral and parenteral nutrition, with optimized protein and energy, is recommended to prevent failure to thrive.
- Fortified human milk is the preferred nutrition, supplemented or complemented as needed.
- Individualized feeding plans and close growth monitoring are essential for catch-up growth, typically by age one.
Impact:
- Improved growth and developmental trajectories for premature infants.
- Reduced incidence of extra-uterine growth restriction.
- Evidence-based guidance for clinicians managing premature infant nutrition.
Abstract:
The nutrition of premature babies is an important issue to improve their short and long-term growth and development. After birth, our target is to achieve the same growth as a foetus of similar gestational age. The recent recommendations insist on the early introduction of enteral and parenteral nutrition, with optimization of protein and energy intakes to avoid the appearance of extra-uterine failure to thrive. The human milk is always the best nutrition for premature babies but it should be adequatly fortified. After hospital discharge, undoubtly breast-feeding still the best choice, but the nutritional intakes should be individualised according to the nutrition state of the baby. A fortification of expressed breat milk or a complement with premature milk formula should be recommended for small for gestational age babies. Then, we should closely follow-up the growth on the regular basis and for a long period, to note that the catch up will be reached frequently at the end of the first year of age.
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