Abstract

Objective: Early transition to full enteral nutrition prevents protein catabolism and has a positive impact on the growth and development of infants. The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting the time to full enteral feeding in very low birth weight infants.

Material and Methods: Demographic data of infants with birth weight ≤1500 g and gestational age ≤32 weeks, time to full enteral feeding, weights and head circumference at discharge, daily weight gain, duration of hospital stay, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), late neonatal sepsis (LNS) and mortality rates were recorded. Data were compared by grouping according to the time of transition to full enteral nutrition as early in the first 10 days and delayed in more than 10 days.

Results: Totally 474 infants were included in the study. Of those 91 infants achieved full enteral feeding in the first 10 days and 383 of them after 10 days. Median gestational age were 29 and 28 weeks and birth weights were 1240 g and 1030 g respectively. While the duration of hospital stay was shorter in the early enteral feeding group (p <0.01), late neonatal sepsis and BPD rates were significantly higher in late arriving enteral feeding (p <0.01). NEC, Grade 3-4 IVH and mortality rates were similar between the groups. Low birth weight, presence of RDS and maternal preeclampsia were found to be risk factors for delayed transition to full enteral feeding.

Conclusion: Early achievement of full enteral feeding in very low birth weight preterm infants might have beneficial effects on morbidities. This might contribute to the growth of infants by decreasing duration of hospitalization. Prevention of preterm births, prevention of RDS and preeclampsia facilitate the transition to full enteral nutrition.

Keywords: nutrition, preterm, Very low birth weight infants, Enteral feeding

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Copyright and license

Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Küçükoğlu Keser M, Köse A, Okman E, Özmen E, Sarı F, Tayman C, et al. Factors Affecting the Full Enteral Feeding in Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Infants. Turk J Pediatr Dis [Internet]. 2021 Jul. 16 [cited 2025 Aug. 23];15(4):257-61. Available from: https://turkjpediatrdis.org/article/view/768