Nutritional bundle to improve growth outcomes among very low birth weight infants

Aggressive enteral, parenteral nutrition, milk fortification and Kangaroo care are some of the interventions aimed at decreased postnatal malnutrition in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. A bundle approach incorporating all these interventions in predominantly breast-milk fed infants to reduce postnatal malnutrition is evaluated in this study.

In this before and after study, growth outcomes were evaluated in 389 infants (before nutrition bundle (BNB) n = 171, after nutrition bundle (ANB) n = 218) at corrected term gestational age (38-40weeks). The nutrition bundle consisted of starting aminoacids within hours of birth, introduction of aminoacids @ 3 g/kg/d and lipids @3 g/kg/d on day 2 and fortification of human milk.

The incidence of malnutrition at term corrected age was similar in both the epochs (57% versus 53.7%, p = 0.35; adjusted OR 0.81, 95% CI: 0.52-1.27. The weight gain in g/kg/d was comparable between the two groups. At term corrected age, the infants in the ANB period were taller by an average of 2.8 cm (95% CI: 2.1 cm-3.4 cm) but had similar weight and head size in comparison to the infants in BNB period. On linear regression analysis, use of early aminoacids and total parenteral nutrition independently improved the weight at discharge by 43 g (95% CI; 9 to 77 g) and length at discharge by 1 cm (95% CI; 0.55 to 1.4 cm). Also the length and OFC at term corrected age were increased by 2.1 cms (95% CI; 1.4 to 2.8 cm) and 0.46 cms (95% CI; 0.1 to 0.8 cm), respectively.

In a cohort of VLBW infants on predominant breast-milk feeds, a nutritional bundle improved weight and length at discharge and the length at term gestational age. The incidence of malnutrition at term gestational age was not affected.