Nutritional needs of the preterm infant after hospital discharge

The authors report their experience in the Division of Neonatology of the Catholic University of Rome about the choice of milk alimentation and mineral and vitamin supplementation before discharge and during the subsequent follow-up, with particular reference to very low-birthweight preterm infants (< 1500 g). Basing on empirical experiences, the authors emphasize the importance in current practice of post-conceptional age, with special regard to the kind of milk to choose after discharge and the time and terms of the weaning. Furthermore they stress nutritional, immuno-allergic and psychological advantages of human milk before and after hospital discharge, particularly related to the presence of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCP), recently known to be essential on retina and brain development in the preterm infant. When breast milk is not available, the authors confirm the efficacy, before discharge, of preterm infant formulas and subsequently of infant formulas and after of follow-up formulas. The authors hope that the directions proposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1983 will be modified in order to recommend cow-milk only after the first year of life of the infant. They finally suggest specific mineral and vitamin supplementations (iron, calcium, phosphorus, fluoride; vitamins K, D, E and folic acid), to be started after hospital discharge

La prevenzione delle apnee del pretermine: tre anni di esperienza con pressione traspolmonare continua.

La prevenzione delle apnee del pretermine: tre anni di esperienza con pressione traspolmonare continua

Physiologic hyperbilirubinemia in low birth weight newborn infants: relation to gestational age, neonatal weight and intra-uterine growth

Neonatal hyperibilirubinaemia is a real problem for its possible repercussion on the psychomotor development, mainly in low birth weight infants. The Authors studied the physiologic course of bilirubinaemia in 513 low birth weight newborns and then related it to gestational age, birth weight and intrauterine growth. Results obtained show that neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia is strictly depending on gestational age, while both the birth weight and the intrauterine growth have no significant influence on its course. Certainly the very low birth weight infants run the higher risk of Kernicterus and brain injury due to hyperbilirubinaemia; they need therefore a quicker therapeutic approach, though the treatment of physiologic hyperbilirubinaemia must always be planned on the basis of gestational age