On-demand feedings for pre-term babies

18 February, 2010
http://www.cfah.org/hbns/archives/getDocument.cfm?documentID=22228

Question:  Feeding pre-term infants on schedule vs. on hunger cues - what works better?

There is a new review of available medical literature from Health Behavior News Service that shows that feeding pre-term infants on hunger cues can help them gain more weight and faster hospital discharge.

Drs. William McGuire of U.K. and Jay Gordon of Cedars Sinai-UCLA Hospital conclude there is some rigidity by neonatologists to adhere to set feeding schedules.   This practice may conflict with breastfeeding on demand.  By about 34 weeks, pre-mature infants are ready to transition from tube feedings to on-demand feedings.  Hunger cues are crying, sucking or breast/bottle refusal were physical cues used for demand feeding. When babies are fed on schedule by tube feedings, more complications may occur.  They also proposed hospital staff become more interested in promoting breastfeeding and do more to promote it. 
Many studies support breastfed babies have higher survival rates in NICU.  Studies also show a positive association between supportive staff attitude and breastfeeding by moms.