Nutrition assessment of hospitalized very preterm infants: Best practices for accurate anthropometry in neonatal intensive care unit settings

Hospitalized very preterm infants, those born at <32 weeks of gestation, represent a nutritionally vulnerable population. Anthropometry is used widely in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) clinical and research settings to facilitate nutrition assessment. This approach involves measuring an infant's body weight, length, and head circumference and plotting them on a growth chart to assess current nutrition status and monitor changes over time. Anthropometric measurements are prone to error owing to the challenges of measuring sick infants who frequently require respiratory support and other medical equipment and a lack of standardized approaches. In this paper, we describe our standardized approach to anthropometry in hospitalized very preterm infants in the NICU with a focus on addressing the specific challenges that arise in this environment. Our overall goal is to provide a tool for clinicians and researchers who want to enhance the quality of anthropometric data, improve decision-making about diet-based care in the NICU, and strengthen the conclusions and impact of research involving very preterm infants.