Effect of Maternal Diabetes on Time to Full Oral Feedings in Infant’s Admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract Objective To compare the time to oral feeds in infants born to mothers with and without diabetes. Study Design : Retrospective study of infants born at or after 34 weeks gestational age and admitted between 1/1/2020 to 01/31/2022. Time to full oral feedings was compared between infants born to mothers with and without diabetes (267 versus 918) Continuous and binomial variables were analyzed with the Mann Whitney U test and the Chi-Square test respectively. Linear regression was then conducted to explore identified potential relationships from these analyses. Result Comparison of groups via univariate analysis revealed a mean difference of two more days to establish full oral feedings (p = 0.0001). Maternal pregestational diabetes (PGDM) and obesity (Body mass index;BMI > 30kg/m²) were associated with longer time for infants to complete oral feeds (p 0.034 and 0.013 respectively) Conclusion Infants born to mothers with diabetes took longer to achieve full oral feedings.