Fluid intake in term and preterm infants exposed to maternal diabetes

Introduction: Diabetes (DM) in pregnancy is associated with obesity and cardiometabolic abnormalities in childhood. Our prior work has shown that preterm infants exposed to DM in pregnancy have differences in early growth trajectory compared with preterm infants not exposed to DM. The influence of early nutrition on growth patterns in preterm infants exposed to DM in pregnancy is not known. The objective of this study was to examine the influence of DM in pregnancy on early total fluid intake (TFI) and weight change during newborn hospitalization. Materials and methods: In a prospective cohort of preterm (30–36 weeks) and term infants, nutrition information was obtained from the medical record and adjusted linear mixed effects models used to determine differences in average TFI between DM exposure groups. Results: Among 149 infants, the DM group (n = 50) had less exclusive breastfeeding on day 1. DM group infants had higher TFI (ml/day) in the first postnatal week, which was explained by infant weight. Among late preterm infants, the DM group had accelerated weight between postnatal day 7 and 14 compared with the non-DM group, which correlated with lower TFI for weight (ml/kg/day) on days 3 and 14. Conclusions: The observed differences in TFI in this cohort may be related to feeding maturity in this at-risk population.