Objective
To compare the time to oral feeds in infants born to mothers with and without diabetes.
Study Design
: Retrospective study of infants born at or after 34 weeks gestational age and admitted between 1/1/2020 to 01/31/2022. Time to full oral feedings was compared between infants born to mothers with and without diabetes (267 versus 918) Continuous and binomial variables were analyzed with the Mann Whitney U test and the Chi-Square test respectively. Linear regression was then conducted to explore identified potential relationships from these analyses.
Result
Comparison of groups via univariate analysis revealed a mean difference of two more days to establish full oral feedings (p = 0.0001). Maternal pregestational diabetes (PGDM) and obesity (Body mass index;BMI > 30kg/m2) were associated with longer time for infants to complete oral feeds (p 0.034 and 0.013 respectively)
Conclusion
Infants born to mothers with diabetes took longer to achieve full oral feedings.