title: Influence of aggressive nutritional support on growth and development of very low birth weight infants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the influence of the early postnatal aggressive nutritional support on the very low birth weight infants (VLBWI) during hospitalization.
  
  
  METHODS
  Surviving premature infants without obvious deformity, with gestational age more than 28 weeks and less than 32 weeks, birth weight 1,000 g to 1,500 g, admitted in NICU in Affiliated Children's Hospital of Suzhou University during 12 hours after birth and stay for two weeks or more from January 2008 to December 2011 were selected, including 44 cases (admitted from September 2010 to December 2011) in the observation group and 36 cases in the control group (admitted from January 2008 and September 2010). The infants in the observation group were treated by aggressive nutritional management, while traditional nutritional management for infants in the control group. The variations of nutritional intake, weight gain, jaundice index, blood biochemistry, serum electrolytes indexes, and complications were compared between the two groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to the control group, the average growth rate and the albumin (ALB) and prealbumin (PA) levels two week after birth and before leaving hospital of the infants in the observation group was significantly higher (p < 0.05), and the incidence of the extrauterine growth retardation was significantly decreasing (p < 0.05). However, the days of hyperbilirubinemia, highest value of the serum bilirubin, duration ofjaundice, platelets after intravenous nutrition, liver function, blood lipid levels, blood glucose, blood PH, serum creatinine, urea nitrogen, and electrolytes of the first day and the seventh day after birth and the in- cidence of parenteral nutrition-associated cholestasis (PNAC) and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) between the two group had no difference (p > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The implementation of aggressive nutritional management on the with VLBWI was safe and effective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Soochow University Affiliated Children's Hospital, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: X P
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D020345:Enterocolitis, Necrotizing / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000254:growth & development*; D008297:Male; D018529:Nutritional Support; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D012709:Serum Albumin