Presented as a poster at the Neonatal Society 2016 Summer Meeting.

Leport M, Dupont-Chauvet P, Guillois B

University Hospital Center of Caen

Background: Establishing full oral feeding is often the purpose of long-term hospitalization in neonatal intensive care unit. The aim of the home care program is to help babies and their families to feed orally as soon as possible but in a familiar place. The aim of this work is to compare the length of establishing full oral feeding infants within the home care program and others who stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Methods: 60 babies were followed with the home care program for naso-gastric tube feeding between May 2010 and November 2012. All the infants included in this program have been matched with a baby the same weight and age, stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit. This study has passed the local ethics committee.

Results: Babies in the NICU established full oral feeding 8 days before babies of the program (36+1 vs 37+2). There is no relation with the type of feeding. However, the babies of the program where at home 6 days before the others and the number of breastfeeding was higher. (78,5% vs 43%).

Conclusion: Even if the full oral feeding is longer to establish in the home care program, it reduces the length of hospitalisation and increases breastfeeding in a susceptible population.

Corresponding author: leport-m@chu-caen.fr

References
Ahnfeldt AM et al. Age and weight at final discharge from an early discharge programme for stable but tube-fed preterm infants. Acta Paediatr. 2015