Effects of continuous feeding on the growth and development of premature infants / 中国实用护理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the effect of continuous feeding on the growth and development of premature infants.Methods:A total of 82 cases of premature infants in our hospital were selected as the research objects, whose birth time was from March 2018 to March 2019. According to different feeding methods, they were divided into control group and observation group, 41 cases in each group. The control group was fed intermittently and the observation group was fed continuously. Before and after 6 months of feeding, the levels of serum growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1, the mental development index(MDI) and physical development index(PDI), body mass, head circumference and height, and adverse reactions were compared.Results:The time of jaundice regression and hospitalization time in the observation group were (8.01±1.52) d, (28.41±3.57) d, shorter than (10.28±2.29) d, (36.19±6.47) d in the control group, the difference was statistically significant ( t value was 5.288, 6.741, P<0.05). There was no significant difference between the control group and the observation group in the levels of serum growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 before feeding ( t value was 0.160, 0.075, P>0.05). After feeding for 6 months, the levels of serum growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 in the experimental group were higher than those in the control group ( t value was 6.895, 19.537, P<0.05). Six months after feeding, the MDI and PDI of the observation group were 115.2±67.93 and 107.6±48.66 respectively, higher than 96.17±13.57, 94.52±10.89 in the control group ( t value was 7.777, 6.038, P<0.05). After feeding for 6 months,the growth level of body weight,head circumference and height in the observation group was higher than that in the control group ( t value was 7.590,10.124,15.661, P<0.05). The adverse reactions of premature infants in hospital infection, multiple apnea, gastric retention and neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis were lower than those in the control group ( χ2 value was 5.399-21.006, P<0.05). Conclusions:Continuous feeding can significantly improve the level of growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 in premature infants, which is conducive to their growth and development, reduce the occurrence of adverse reactions and shorten the hospitalization time of premature infants, which has a certain clinical application value.