A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO-HOURLY VERSUS THREEHOURLY FEEDING IN PRETERM NEONATES

Abstract

BACKGROUND Preterm nutritional care for babies plays a dominant role in the long-term neurodevelopmental and growth outcomes for this vulnerable population. Very low birth weight babies (1000–1500 g) are more difficult to feed since most of them are at risk for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), have poor feeding skills at birth, and have feed intolerance. This investigation set out to study the impact of feeding premature infants on growth parameters, respiratory endurance, and time required to attain complete enteral feeding. MATERIAL AND METHODS Among stable newborns of preterm admitted to the NICU, a comparative open-label study was carried out. The final sample size consisted of approximately 45 cases in the 2H group and 45 cases in the 3H group. Neonatal data was collected, including gender, neonatal age, birth weight, Apgar score at five minutes, gestational age, weight on admission, hyperbilirubinemia signs and symptoms and complaints at the time of admission. A clinical examination was performed in the NICU for all the babies who were admitted for preterm care. Enteral feeds were offered every two hours in first group, while the second group received it every three hours. Once the neonate was stable, feeding was initiated with expressed breast milk, and Intravenous fluid was administered in first group until reaching the enteral feed up to 120 mL/kg/day volume. xviii RESULTS In both groups, there were more male newborns than female babies. In 31.1% of the cases in the two-hourly group and in 40.0% of the individuals in the three-hourly group, the gestational age was 35 weeks. Approximately 13.3% of the 2H group and 77.8% of the 3H group were over the weight of 1800 grams when they were admitted. 13.3% of the 2H group and 77.8% of the 3H group had an APGAR score of greater than 8 after five minutes. In less than an hour, 91.1% of the 3-hour group and 84.4% of the 2-hour group began feeding. The length of stay in hospital was 12.7 days for 3H group and 14.0 days for the 2H group, which was not statistically significant. Mean time to attain full feeds was 13.5 days in 2H group and 11 days in 3H group which was statistically significant. 4.4% of the neonates in the two-hourly study had NEC, 8.9% experienced hypoglycemia, and 8.9% had feed intolerance. 4.4% of the neonates in the three-hour group showed feed intolerance, while 4.4% had hypoglycemia. There was no statistically significant difference. CONCLUSION This study had shown that, 3rd hourly feeding was found better than the 2nd hourly feeding