Author(s)

Conceição Costa^1*, Teresa Torres¹, Andreia Teles²

¹Departments of Pediatrics—Centro Hospitalar Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.
²Departments of Pediatrics, Neonatology Unit—Centro Hospitalar Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.

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 30^th day was 425 g. At discharge, 37% were ^rd month 20% had their weight under P3, decreasing to 10% by the 12^th month. Children who initiated PN in the first 24 hours of life had significantly better weight on the 30^th day of their life (p < 0.001) and in the 6^th month of corrected age (p = 0.038). And they had better Body Mass Index (BMI) in the 3^rd (p = 0.012) and 12^th (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.

Growth, Parenteral Nutrition, Preterm Infant, Very Low Birth Weight

Costa, C. , Torres, T. and Teles, A. (2015) Neonatal Nutrition and Later Outcomes of Very Low Birth Weight and Preterm Infants <32 Gestational Age at a Tertiary Care Hospital of Portugal. Open Journal of Pediatrics, 5, 190-198. doi: 10.4236/ojped.2015.53029.