RT Book, Section
A1 Torrazza, Roberto Murgas
A1 Roig, Juan Carlos
A1 Neu, Josef
A2 Stevenson, David K.
A2 Cohen, Ronald S.
A2 Sunshine, Philip
SR Print(0)
ID 1109791812
T1 Enteral Nutrition
T2 Neonatology: Clinical Practice and Procedures
YR 2015
FD 2015
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071763769
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1109791812
RD 2024/04/24
AB The  enteral  route  is  the  most  physiologic  and  natural  way  of  administering  nutrients  to  humans,  and  attaining  full  enteral  feedings  can  often  be  challenging  to  clinicians  who  care  for  preterm  infants.  Establishing  enteral  feedings  should  be  one  of  the  most  important  goals,  especially  in  very  low  birth  weight  (VLBW)  infants.  The  utilization  of  the  gastrointestinal  tract  provides  these  patients  with  multiple  benefits,  which  include  enhanced  growth  and  neurodevelopment,  improved  immunologic  functions  with  decreased  infections,  and  acceleration  of  intestinal  adaptation  and  maturation  with  a  subsequent  increase  in  the  absorption  of  nutrients.  Despite  the  numerous  advances  made  to  date  in  the  area  of  nutrition  for  preterm  infants,  such  as  the  use  of  parenteral  solutions  with  more  proteins,  the  majority  of  these  infants  are  discharged  weighing  less  than  the  10th  percentile  for  age.1,2  The  early  initiation  of  parenteral  nutritional  support  in  preterm  infants  is  a  trend  now  widely  supported  by  neonatologists,  but  often,  enteral  nutrition  is  underutilized,  delayed,  or  totally  withheld  for  prolonged  times  because  of  concerns  of  feeding  intolerance  or  the  fear  for  the  development  of  necrotizing  enterocolitis  (NEC),  which  remains  the  most  common  devastating  gastrointestinal  complication  of  the  preterm  infant.  The  principles  that  should  be  considered  to  prevent  “metabolic  shock”  and  to  optimize  nutrition  in  the  preterm  infant  should  include  the  following: