Post-hospital-discharge nutrition for the premature infant

As perinatal medicine advances, the survival of premature infants at younger gestational ages is improving, and their special needs are becoming more complex. The responsibility for their long-term care has fallen on the primary care physician as well. These infants have ongoing issues with nutrition and growth, chronic lung disease, retinopathy of prematurity, gastroesophageal reflux, apnea, and immunizations. However, assessment of growth and development still remains the cornerstone of their well-child visits, and they depend on optimal nutrition for good outcomes. The focus of this chapter is the nutritional goals of the premature infant and ways to achieve them. Our ability to provide in-hospital nutrition, while still not optimal, has vastly improved; care of the preterm infant, especially the very low birthweight infant, after hospital discharge still lags behind.