14 DAY TRIAL // Many healthcare experts and parents advocate the necessity of creating a viable feeding plan for premature babies, which involves giving the children food at regular, pre-determined intervals. But a new scientific study seems to indicate that infants could be discharged faster from the hospital if they are fed each time they exhibit hunger-specific behavior. The researchers say that this could promote the babies' growth, and make them stronger faster.
The conclusion of the research applies only when children get to be about 34 weeks old, which is almost the full duration of a normal pregnancy. By that time, the review has found, healthcare experts should ease up on the strict dietary program they placed the babies under. It may be that allowing the child to dictate when he or she receives food is better for their health than waiting until adults find it appropriate to feed them.
“Maybe we should be more holistic and baby responsive, especially in regard to feeding. Maybe the babies know what they want and need better than we do.” Hull York Medical School Center for Reviews and Dissemination investigator William McGuire, also a co-author of the review, explains. The researchers focused on about eight pertinent researches of preterm infants, all of which included between 13 and 150 case studies. Of the researches analyzed, two had been conducted in Canada, and the other six in the United States, PhysOrg reports.
“Feeding preterm infants in response to their hunger and satiation cues rather than at scheduled intervals might help in the establishment of independent oral feeding, increase nutrient intake and growth rates and allow earlier hospital discharge,” the authors explain in their new paper. The data appear in the current issue of The Cochrane Library.
“This review very clearly highlights the paucity of truly good feeding studies in which mothers and infants were allowed or encouraged to establish breastfeeding ‘rhythm’ early in life. My personal experience is that even the most caring and skilled neonatologists exhibit extreme tunnel vision about feeding and illness outcomes later in a baby’s life. I’m certain that they care; they just exhibit a strong bias towards short-term rather than long-term outcomes,” University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical School Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Jay Gordon, MD, adds.