Nutrition, Weight Gain, and Length of Stay of the NICU Infants Who Were not Placed in their Mothers' Arms

Ismail Özkaya* and Gözde Oysal

Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health. Kırklareli University. Turkey.

Corresponding Author E-mail: dytismail@hotmail.com

Most neonatal deaths in the world occur in low- and middle-income countries. It is possible to prevent at least two-thirds of these deaths with the right approaches and breast milk.
Setting and Sampling: One hundred infants, 59% male and 41% female, participated in the study. These babies were hospitalized in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit without being placed in their mothers' arms. Weight gain and hospitalization periods were followed according to the nutritional status of the babies.
While 54% of the patients were fed only with breast milk, 42% were mixed-fed with a combination of breast milk and formula, and 4% of the patients who did not have mothers’ milk were fed only with the formula. There was no statistically significant difference between the weight differences and rank averages of the babies according to the status of feeding (U=108.5, p=0.142). The discharge times of babies who are breastfed in the NICU are significantly higher than those who do not receive breastmilk. In other words, breastfeeding status in the NICU was found to affect the length of time that infants were hospitalized in the NICU.
This study examined the nutrition, weight gain and length of stay of NICU infants. Babies who are taken to intensive care without ever reaching their mother are a difficult group to evaluate. We have shown that even for NICU infants who are not placed in their mothers' arms, breast milk is quite superior in both weight gain and hospitalized stay.
Early and advanced-pregnancies and cesarean births in all age groups, unfortunately, increase the risk of complications that may occur in the mother and baby after birth. The rapid weight gain of the baby with formula foods is not a health indicator.

Breast Milk; Formula Food; Newborn Intensive; Newborn; Weight Tracking

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