[Nutrition and growth follow-up in the preterm infant]. / Nutrition et suivi de la croissance de l'enfant prématuré "après la sortie".

ABSTRACT

The nutrition of premature babies is an important issue to improve their short and long-term growth and development. After birth, our target is to achieve the same growth as a foetus of similar gestational age. The recent recommendations insist on the early introduction of enteral and parenteral nutrition, with optimization of protein and energy intakes to avoid the appearance of extra-uterine failure to thrive. The human milk is always the best nutrition for premature babies but it should be adequatly fortified. After hospital discharge, undoubtly breast-feeding still the best choice, but the nutritional intakes should be individualised according to the nutrition state of the baby. A fortification of expressed breat milk or a complement with premature milk formula should be recommended for small for gestational age babies. Then, we should closely follow-up the growth on the regular basis and for a long period, to note that the catch up will be reached frequently at the end of the first year of age.