Achieving full oral feeds in extremely low birth weight infants in the neonatal intensive care unit: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND

The purpose of our study was to describe the time to full oral enteral feeding for extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective chart review of ELBW infants born at a regional medical center between July 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022. Infants who died or were transferred before discharge from the NICU were excluded from the study. Fifty four ELBW infants met the inclusion criteria for the study. Survival analysis was conducted using Kaplan-Meier curves to estimate the time to full oral feeds over an observation period of up to 153 days.

RESULTS

A total of 25% of all ELBW infants achieved full oral feeding by 94 days of life, and 33.3% achieved full oral feeding before discharge from the NICU. The median time to full oral feeding for ELBW infants born at 27 to 30 weeks gestational age was 82 days. After adjusting for gestational age and birthweight, infants who did not achieve full oral feeds were discharged 12 days later (95% confidence interval: 2-23 days; P = 0.02) than infants who achieved full oral feeds.

CONCLUSION

The majority of ELBW infants did not achieve full oral feeding before NICU discharge. Early discussion of an alternate home feeding plan may shorten the duration of NICU stay.