Current nutrition practices in premature and low‐birth‐weight newborns: A descriptive cohort study

BACKGROUND: This study aims to describe the nutrition approach to preterm and low-birth-weight infants during hospitalization in a level 3 neonatal intensive care unit. METHODS: Descriptive cohort study on preterm infants with gestational age ≤34 weeks or birth weight ≤1500 g admitted for hospitalization between January 2021 and December 2022. Data were collected from medical records. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 85 preterm infants. All received parenteral nutrition, which was started on the first day of life in 98.8% of them. Trophic nutrition was started by the third day of life in 74.7% of the preterm infants. The median start of trophic nutrition was 5 days in infants with a birth weight <1000 g, 3 days in infants with a birth weight from 1000 to <1500 g, and 2 days in infants with birth weight ≥1500 g (P < 0.001). Preterm infants with a birth weight ≥1500 g started enteral nutrition and reached full enteral nutrition earlier (P < 0.001) than the other birth weight subgroups. The diet was suspended for >24 h in 26 preterm infants (30.6%). At discharge, 84.7% of the infants were receiving breast milk, with 25.9% exclusively breastfeeding and 58.8% partially breastfeeding. CONCLUSIONS: Earlier initiation of enteral feeding in line with the latest guidelines can be optimized with the availability of donor milk from a human milk bank.