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Updated: May 6, 2026

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
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Published on: August 25, 2014

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Postnatal Growth Assessment of the Very-Low-Birth-Weight Preterm Infant

Kera McNelis1, Melissa Thoene2, Katie A Huff3

  • 1Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.

Children (Basel, Switzerland)
|February 26, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Preterm birth poses nutritional challenges, impacting infant growth. This review examines growth assessment and standards for very-low-birth-weight infants to identify key monitoring metrics.

Area of Science:

  • Neonatalogy
  • Pediatric Nutrition
  • Growth Monitoring

Background:

  • Preterm birth creates a critical nutritional state, disrupting maternal-placental-fetal physiological regulation.
  • Infant growth is essential for health but energetically costly for critically ill premature infants.
  • Current growth rates in preterm infants often fall short of gestational age-matched fetal growth targets.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review current growth assessment and standards for very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants.
  • To address the knowledge gap regarding the most crucial growth metrics for VLBW infants.
  • To explore novel metrics for evaluating growth quality in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of studies on preterm infant growth.
  • Analysis of existing growth assessment tools and standards.
  • Discussion of proposed new metrics for growth quality.

Main Results:

  • Many preterm infants do not achieve growth rates comparable to their fetal counterparts.
  • Various metrics for assessing growth quality in the NICU have been proposed.
  • The optimal metrics for monitoring VLBW infant growth require further clarification.

Conclusions:

  • Accurate growth assessment is vital for the well-being of preterm infants.
  • Further research is needed to establish definitive growth standards and optimal monitoring metrics for VLBW infants.
  • Identifying the most important growth metrics will improve care and outcomes for premature infants.

Keywords:
critical illnessinfantintensive care unitsneonatalnewbornprematurepremature birthvery low birth weight

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