title: Three-year growth and developmental follow-up of very low birth weight infants fed own mother's milk, a premature infant formula, or one of two standard formulas.
abstract: A cohort of 40 very low birth weight (VLBW) infants was followed until they reached 3 years of age. These infants were originally part of a feeding trial in the early postnatal period whereby they were fed either their own mother's milk, a standard whey-predominant formula, a casein-predominant formula, or a premature formula. Those fed the latter formula grew significantly better while in the hospital and had no biochemical derangements. At 3 years of age, there were no significant intergroup differences with respect to growth or development. There was a positive correlation between head growth in hospital and weight at 3 years, but there were no other significant relationships between early postnatal growth and growth parameters at 3 years. Socioeconomic status was the only predictor of developmental scores at 3 years of age. No adverse effects from early metabolic acidosis or alterations of amino acid profiles during the neonatal period were detectable at 3 years of age. However, the small sample size of this study may have missed true differences in outcome measures at 3 years, and larger studies are required to examine these questions further.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Rothberg
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Horn
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vogelman
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008895:Milk, Human; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors