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Enteral Nutrition in Preterm Neonates

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Textbook of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition

Abstract

Infants with birth body weight less than 1500 g develop a postnatal growth failure in the vast majority of the cases. To limit this risk, enteral nutrition should be introduced appropriately, with respect to actual requirements of preterm neonates. Administration of enteral nutrition depends on postnatal age and clinical conditions. During the early adaptive period of life (from birth to approximately day 7), hemodynamic instability associated with immaturity of the gastrointestinal tract limit the use of enteral nutrition. Parenteral nutrition represents the main route of administration of nutrients in this period. However, enteral nutrition should be started since the first 1–2 days of life as minimal enteral feeding (10–30 ml/kg/day) and progressively increased (by 20–30 ml/kg/day) until full enteral feeding is reached (120 kcal/kg/day) and, contemporarily, parenteral nutrition could be stopped. In the stable growing period (from approximately day 7 to near term/discharge), all nutritional requirements, including macronutrients and micronutrients, should be reached only by enteral nutrition. Human milk is the preferred form of enteral nutrition for preterm babies; however, fortification with adequate amount of protein, carbohydrates, lipids, electrolytes, and micronutrients should be adopted to respect nutritional needs of these subjects. In this chapter, we focused on modalities to reach nutritional requirements by enteral nutrition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Perinatal Medicine, Neonatology Unit, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Gianluca Terrin

  2. CHU de Liege, CHR de la Citadelle, University of Liege, Liege, Belgium

    Thibault Senterre & Jacques Rigo

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Neonatology Unit, Policlinico Umberto I, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00161, Rome, Italy

    Mario De Curtis

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  1. Gianluca Terrin
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  2. Thibault Senterre
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  3. Jacques Rigo
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  4. Mario De Curtis
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Correspondence to Mario De Curtis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Stefano Guandalini

  2. Clinical Director Child Health King’s College Hospital, Professor and Director Pediatric Liver, GI and Nutrition Center, London, United Kingdom

    Anil Dhawan

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Hebrew University Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel

    David Branski

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Terrin, G., Senterre, T., Rigo, J., De Curtis, M. (2016). Enteral Nutrition in Preterm Neonates. In: Guandalini, S., Dhawan, A., Branski, D. (eds) Textbook of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17169-2_6

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