Enteral nutrition affects the child and the whole family system on more than just nutritional level. It is suggested that children and their families should be followed-up by health professionals periodically for nutritional optimization, growth documentation, and other aspects of tube management.

Background: Early nutritional support of preterm infants is important because it influences long-term health and development. Body composition has an influence on cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and neurocognitive outcome in the long term. Objective: To assess body composition in preterm infants <32 weeks of gestation at term-equivalent age and to analyze the influence of an optimized nutritional approach. Methods: This is a prespecified secondary outcome analysis of a prospective observational study comparing the body composition in regard to gestational age. The preterm infants were classified according to gestational age as extremely preterm infants (<28 weeks gestation at birth) and very preterm infants (≥28 weeks gestation at birth) and according to weight percentile as appropriate for gestational age and small for gestational age. Body composition was determined by air displacement plethysmography using the PEA POD. The preterm infants obtained nutrition according to the ESPGHAN 2010 Guidelines. Results: Seventy-four preterm infants were analyzed. The mean (SD) gestational age was 28.7 (2.4) weeks, and birth weight was 1,162 (372) g. Fat mass percentage was significantly higher in extremely preterm infants in comparison to very preterm infants [17.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 15.9-18.1 vs. 15.5, 95% CI 14.7-16.2]. There was no significant difference of fat mass percentage according to weight percentiles. Conclusions: Extremely preterm infants had a significantly higher fat mass percentage compared to very preterm infants at term-equivalent age. There was no significant difference of fat mass percentage according to weight percentiles.

Provision of aggressive parenteral nutrition during first 3 weeks of life and earlier fortification should be ensured. The use of mother milk fortifier resulted in glucose intake above the ESPGHAN recommendations in later weeks - this needs to be evaluated in future studies.

Prematurity, especially extreme prematurity, is associated with an increased risk for development of tube dependency. Preventive measures for this specific group of children should be considered.