A Comparative Study Of Two-Hourly Versus Three-Hourly Feeding In Stable Preterm Neonates

Background: Babies who weigh between 1000 and 1500 grams are considered very low birth weight (VLBW) and are more challenging to feed because the majority of them have feed intolerance, poor feeding skills at birth, and a risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of feeding babies who were born before their due date on growth metrics, respiratory tolerance, and the amount of time it took to achieve full enteral feeding. Material and Methods: Among stable preterm newborns admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), a comparative open-label study was carried out. About 45 cases each in the 2-hourly group and 3-hourly group made up the final sample size. Neonatal data, such as age, gender, gestational age, weight at birth, weight at admission, 5-minute Apgar score, hyperbilirubinemia symptoms and indicators, and history of complaints upon admission, were gathered. Every neonate hospitalised for preterm care underwent a clinical assessment in the NICU. Enteral feeding was administered every two hours to the first group and every three hours to the second.  Following the neonate's stabilisation, expressed breast milk was started for feeding, and intravenous fluid was given to the first group until the enteral feed achieved a volume of 120 mL/kg/day. Results: In both groups, there were more males than female babies. In 31.1% of the cases in the two-hourly group and in 40.0% of the individuals in the three-hourly group, the gestational age was 35 weeks. About 13.3% of the 2 hourly group and 77.8% of the 3 hourly group had an APGAR score of greater than 8 after five minutes. In less than an hour, 91.1% of the 3-hour group and 84.4% of the 2-hour group began feeding. Mean time to attain full feeds was 13.5 days in 2 hourly group and 11 days in 3 hourly group which was statistically significant. About 4.4% of the neonates in the two-hourly study had NEC, 8.9% experienced hypoglycemia, and 8.9% had feed intolerance. 4.4% of the neonates in the three-hour group showed feed intolerance, while 4.4% had hypoglycemia. Conclusion: This study had shown that, 3rd hourly feeding was found better than the 2nd hourly feeding.