Neonatal Nutrition and Later Outcomes of Very Low Birth Weight and Preterm Infants <32 Gestational Age at a Tertiary Care Hospital of Portugal

摘要

Premature infants, especially those born with less than 1500 g, often exhibit slow overall growth. Lack of early nutritional support is an important element. The present authors describe parenteral nutritional practices in a tertiary hospital and evaluate postnatal growth of preterm infants under 32 weeks of gestational age or with a birth weight < 1500 g. For population study, we examined 431 newborn files. Their median gestational age was 29.7 weeks. Of them, 25.4% were small for gestational age (SGA). 77.5% received parenteral nutrition (PN), 54.5% of which was provided on the first day. The average time was 14.7 days. The average weight gain by the 30th day was 425 g. At discharge, 37% were rd month 20% had their weight under P3, decreasing to 10% by the 12th month. Children who initiated PN in the first 24 hours of life had significantly better weight on the 30th day of their life (p th month of corrected age (p = 0.038). And they had better Body Mass Index (BMI) in the 3rd (p = 0.012) and 12th (p = 0.023) months. Despite better feeding practices, there is still significant failure in post natal growth. Early introduction of PN was associated with an improved weight gain, which suggests that nutrition that included amino acids may be critical during the first 24 hours of life.