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Preterm dietary study: meal frequency, regurgitation and the surprisingly high use of laxatives among formula‐fed infants following discharge
Author(s) -
Zachariassen G,
FengerGron J
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/apa.12524
Subject(s) - medicine , laxative , regurgitation (circulation) , pediatrics , meal , incidence (geometry) , constipation , infant formula , physics , optics
Abstract Aim To describe eating habits and possible feeding intolerance among preterm infants based on type of nutrition. Methods The parents of infants born below 32 weeks filled in questionnaires, before and after discharge, about type of nutrition, number of meals, regurgitation, number of stools and laxative use. Results A total of 769 questionnaires based on 286 very preterm infants were completed, and 753 were included. At 40 weeks of corrected age, infants fed both fortified and unfortified human milk received more daily meals (mean 7.37 and 7.57) than preterm formula‐fed infants (mean 6.79) (p < 0.05). Fortification of human milk did not seem to increase the incidence of regurgitation. Between 38.7 and 42.9% of the preterm infants were treated with laxatives from discharge to 6 months of corrected age. Infants fed preterm formula prior to discharge, at term, at 2 and 4 months of corrected age received laxatives more often than infants fed human milk, with odds ratios of 13.7, 137.5, 49.7 and 40.5, respectively (p ≤ 0.001). Conclusion Constipation seems to be frequent among very preterm infants. Laxative use averaged 40% across all the different feeding groups and was as high as 70–85% in formula‐fed preterm infants over the course of the study.