Abstract:
Objective: To observe the effect of early continuous microfeeding and routine intermittent feeding in low-birth-weight infants.
Methods: From August 2014 to August 2015, in Zhengzhou Children's Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 124 cases of low-birth-weight infants were randomly divided into observation group and control group, each with 62 cases. The control group was given routine intermittent feeding, and the observation group was treated with early continuous microfeeding. The changes of body mass and serum gastrin were observed before and after treatment in two groups. The time for body mass to begin to increase, the time of self sucking, the regression time of jaundice and the incidence of feeding complications were also observed.
Results: In observation group the body mass after intervention was (1 673.54±154.27)g and gastrin was (124.82±14.28)ng/L, significantly higher than the control group, whose body mass was (1 395.77±102.54)g and gastrin was (98.79±6.88)ng/L, the difference being of statistical significance(P<0.05). The time for body mass to begin to increase self sucking time, jaundice subsiding time and feeding complication rate in the observation group were better than those of the control group, the difference being statistically significant(P<0.05).
Conclusion: The early microfeeding in low-birth-weight infants can improve the feeding tolerance, promote the maturation of the gastrointestinal tract, increase body weight rapidly, and shorten the duration of jaundice, which is worthy of being popularized in clinics.

Key words: Low-birth-weight infant, Early stage, Continuous microfeeding, Intermittent feeding, Nutritional status