Unit 2: Nutritional Requirements of the Preterm Infant

Parenteral nutrition is very important for the VLBW infants, since during the first days of life, they usually receive the majority of their nutrients supply intravenously. Full enteral nutrition may take several weeks after birth to be established. When calculating the ideal supply for parenteral mineral supplementation, it is important to consider the poor salt mineral solubility in parenteral solutions. Additionally, hypocalcemia and hypophosphatemia are common in the preterm infant around birth. Therefore, it is important to offer an adequate parenteral provision of these nutrients immediately after birth (Mimouni et al. 2014). 

References: Mimouni et al. 2014, Koletzko et al. 2014a