Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 8, 2025
Author Spotlight: Implications of Non-Nutritive Sucking on Speech Emergence and Infant Development
Published on: April 19, 2024
Achieving full oral feeds in extremely low birth weight infants in the neonatal intensive care unit: a retrospective
Eva Proels1, Joleen Dako1,2
1Department of Pediatrics, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, Georgia, USA.
Background:
The purpose of our study was to describe the time to full oral enteral feeding for extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective chart review of ELBW infants born at a regional medical center between July 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022. Infants who died or were transferred before discharge from the NICU were excluded from the study. Fifty four ELBW infants met the inclusion criteria for the study. Survival analysis was conducted using Kaplan-Meier curves to estimate the time to full oral feeds over an observation period of up to 153 days.
Results:
A total of 25% of all ELBW infants achieved full oral feeding by 94 days of life, and 33.3% achieved full oral feeding before discharge from the NICU. The median time to full oral feeding for ELBW infants born at 27 to 30 weeks gestational age was 82 days. After adjusting for gestational age and birthweight, infants who did not achieve full oral feeds were discharged 12 days later (95% confidence interval: 2-23 days; P = 0.02) than infants who achieved full oral feeds.
Conclusion:
The majority of ELBW infants did not achieve full oral feeding before NICU discharge. Early discussion of an alternate home feeding plan may shorten the duration of NICU stay.
More Related Videos
07:11Assessment of the Efficacy of An Osteopathic Treatment in Infants with Biomechanical Impairments to Suckling
Published on: February 5, 2019
09:36Effect of Hyaluronic Acid 35 kDa on an In Vitro Model of Preterm Small Intestinal Injury and Healing Using Enteroid-Derived Monolayers
Published on: July 28, 2022
Related Concept Videos
01:15Enteral Nutrition II: Nasointestinal and Gastrostomy Feeding
Nasointestinal Feeding
Nasointestinal feeding involves placing a tube...
01:26Enteral Nutrition I: Orogastric and Nasogastric Feeding
Orogastric (OG) and nasogastric (NG) feeding are two standard methods used for enteral nutrition. Enteral nutrition is often preferred over...
01:17Endotracheal Intubation II: Nursing Management
1. Nursing Care of Patients Before Intubation
Before the endotracheal intubation procedure, nurses play an essential role in ensuring the process goes smoothly. The nurses must be familiar with intubation...
01:25Suctioning the Oropharyngeal Airway
After assembling the equipment, the nurse should practice hand hygiene and don appropriate PPE according to infection control guidelines to avoid the...
01:29Suctioning the Nasopharyngeal Airway
Equipment Required
01:27Parentral Nutrition: Centeral and Peripheral Parental Nutrition
PN can be administered through two primary routes:
1. Central Parenteral Nutrition (CPN):
CPN involves delivering a high concentration of nutrients through a large vein. This is typically achieved using a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) or,...