Feeding Intolerance in Preterm Neonates in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Padma General hospital, Dhaka

Abstract

Background : Premature infants frequently suffer from feeding intolerance and is highly associated to morbidity and mortality. It is a great challenge which have to face all the neonatologist. Feeding intolerance can be defined by difficulty in ingestion or digestion of the milk that causes a disruption in the enteral feeding plan due to the manifestation of some clinical symptoms. These symptoms include gastric residuals, emesis, abdominal distention, visible bowel loops, and change in the character of stool etc.

Feeding Intolerance among Preterm Neonates Admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

“…In this study, it was observed that the gestational age of preterm neonates ranged from 28 to 36 with a mean of 32.09±3.01 weeks of gestation which was similar (32.1±2.3 weeks with a range from 28 to 36 weeks) to the study result done at a general hospital of Dhaka. 2 A study done in Western Nepal shows similarity to this study in findings as the birth weight of babies ranged from 0.935 to 2.55 kg with a mean of 1.55 kg and this study also showed the birth weight of preterms ranged from 0.70 gram to 2.60 gram with mean of 1.65±0.48.6.…”

“…Free Full Text Articles are Available at www.jnma.com.np Israelian, 11.02% in Western Nepal. 2,[6][7][8][9][10] The prevalence of feeding intolerance in this study was found to be 38.18% which is almost similar to a study done in Bangladesh, 8 but higher than another Bangladeshi study. 2 Here, the majority of preterm with feeding intolerance had features of, abdominal distension (47.6%) and some had apnea (23.8%), gastric residual 14.3%, and vomiting (14.3%).…”

“…6 Most of the other studies also had similar clinical presentations of vomiting, abdominal distension, gastric residual, and apnea. 2,7 In this study, as regards the presence of other morbidities in the cases with feeding intolerance, it was HMD (33.3%) followed by sepsis (19%), and pneumonia (14.3%). Similar to ours, another study also detected HMD as the most common morbidity (23.7%), in preterm with feed intolerance.…”

“…1 Establishing enteral feeding is a critical milestone in premature infants. 2 The main cause of neonatal deaths in Nepal is prematurity (30.8 %). 3 Provision of breast milk is an effective way of preventing the 2.8 million annual infant deaths worldwide.…”

Effects of tactile-kinesthetic stimulation on feeding and weight of moderate and late preterm neonates

“…Immature digestive system of preterm neonates induces feeding intolerance resulting in increased risk of infection, inability to maintain enteral feeds, and weight loss (4,5) ; in addition to necrotizing enterocolitis -a leading cause of morbidity and mortality of preterm neonates (6) . With priority to promptly achieve full enteral feeds for the preterm neonates, signs of feeding intolerance are a great set back in care of the preterm neonates.…”