{"title":"Expected and Desirable Preterm and Small Infant Growth Patterns","authors":"Tanis R Fenton , Stephanie Merlino Barr , Seham Elmrayed , Belal Alshaikh","doi":"10.1016/j.advnut.2024.100220","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Adequate nutrition is necessary for achieving optimal growth and neurodevelopment. Growth is a natural and expected process that happens concomitantly with rapid advancements in neurodevelopment. Serial weight, length, and head circumference growth measures are essential for monitoring development, although identifying pathological deviations from normal growth can pose challenges. Appropriate growth assessments require considerations that a range of sizes for length, head circumference, and weight are expected and appropriate. Because of genetic differences and morbidities, there is a considerable overlap between the growth of healthy infants and those with growth alterations. Parents tend to be over-concerned about children who plot low on growth charts and often need reassurance. Thus, the use of terms such as “poor” growth or growth “failure” are discouraged when growth is approximately parallel to growth chart curves even if their size is smaller than specific percentiles. No specific percentile should be set as a growth goal; individual variability should be expected. An infant’s size at birth is important information that goes beyond the common use of prognostic predictions of appropriate compared with small or large for gestational age. The lower the birthweight, the lower the nutrient stores and the more important the need for nutrition support. Compared to term infants, preterm infants at term-equivalent age have a higher percentage of body fat, but this diminishes over the next months. Current research findings support expert recommendations that preterm infants should grow, after early postnatal weight loss, similar to the fetus and then term-born infants, which translates to growth approximately parallel to growth chart curves. There is no need for a trade-off between optimum cognition and optimum future health. Each high-risk infant needs individualized nutrition and growth assessments. This review aims to examine infant growth expectations and messaging for parents of preterm and term-born infants within the broader causal framework.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7349,"journal":{"name":"Advances in Nutrition","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2161831324000541/pdfft?md5=0b96366e3566c2f4f9ce9f54a38b2983&pid=1-s2.0-S2161831324000541-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Advances in Nutrition","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2161831324000541","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"NUTRITION & DIETETICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Adequate nutrition is necessary for achieving optimal growth and neurodevelopment. Growth is a natural and expected process that happens concomitantly with rapid advancements in neurodevelopment. Serial weight, length, and head circumference growth measures are essential for monitoring development, although identifying pathological deviations from normal growth can pose challenges. Appropriate growth assessments require considerations that a range of sizes for length, head circumference, and weight are expected and appropriate. Because of genetic differences and morbidities, there is a considerable overlap between the growth of healthy infants and those with growth alterations. Parents tend to be over-concerned about children who plot low on growth charts and often need reassurance. Thus, the use of terms such as “poor” growth or growth “failure” are discouraged when growth is approximately parallel to growth chart curves even if their size is smaller than specific percentiles. No specific percentile should be set as a growth goal; individual variability should be expected. An infant’s size at birth is important information that goes beyond the common use of prognostic predictions of appropriate compared with small or large for gestational age. The lower the birthweight, the lower the nutrient stores and the more important the need for nutrition support. Compared to term infants, preterm infants at term-equivalent age have a higher percentage of body fat, but this diminishes over the next months. Current research findings support expert recommendations that preterm infants should grow, after early postnatal weight loss, similar to the fetus and then term-born infants, which translates to growth approximately parallel to growth chart curves. There is no need for a trade-off between optimum cognition and optimum future health. Each high-risk infant needs individualized nutrition and growth assessments. This review aims to examine infant growth expectations and messaging for parents of preterm and term-born infants within the broader causal framework.
期刊介绍:
Advances in Nutrition (AN/Adv Nutr) publishes focused reviews on pivotal findings and recent research across all domains relevant to nutritional scientists and biomedical researchers. This encompasses nutrition-related research spanning biochemical, molecular, and genetic studies using experimental animal models, domestic animals, and human subjects. The journal also emphasizes clinical nutrition, epidemiology and public health, and nutrition education. Review articles concentrate on recent progress rather than broad historical developments.
In addition to review articles, AN includes Perspectives, Letters to the Editor, and supplements. Supplement proposals require pre-approval by the editor before submission. The journal features reports and position papers from the American Society for Nutrition, summaries of major government and foundation reports, and Nutrient Information briefs providing crucial details about dietary requirements, food sources, deficiencies, and other essential nutrient information. All submissions with scientific content undergo peer review by the Editors or their designees prior to acceptance for publication.