Continuous Glucose Monitoring among Infants Born Very Preterm: Evidence for Accuracy in Neonatal Intensive Care.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of a device for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) among infants born preterm admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Study Design: We analyzed paired CGM sensor glucose (SG) and point-of-care blood glucose (BG) measurements collected in infants born at ≤32 weeks of gestation or with a birth weight ≤1500 g. CGM was initiated within 48 hours from birth and maintained for 5 days.

Complementary feeding in infants born preterm: Aspects needing improvement.

Objective: The aim of our study was to collect data on complementary feeding (CF) in preterm infants (PIs).

Methods: We enrolled PI ≤ 34 weeks of gestational age discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the University Hospital of Padova. At 12 months of corrected age (CA), CF was investigated with questionnaires to the parents and a 24-h dietary recall.

Bone Status and Early Nutrition in Preterm Newborns with and without Intrauterine Growth Restriction.

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) together with preterm birth could be harmful to bone health. The aim of the study was to examine bone status in IUGR versus non-IUGR preterms and to analyze the nutritional management best correlated with its improvement. Newborns < 34 weeks of gestational age (wGA), 75 IUGR and 75 non-IUGR, admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the University Hospital of Padova were enrolled and monitored from birth until 36 wGA through anthropometry (weight, length, head circumference, lower limb length (LLL)), biochemistry, bone quantitative ultrasound assessment of bone status (metacarpus bone transmission time, mc-BTT, us) and nutritional intakes monitoring during parenteral nutrition.

Prematurity and BPD: what general pediatricians should know.

More and more very low birth weight (VLBW) infants around the world survive nowadays, with consequently larger numbers of children developing prematurity-related morbidities, especially bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). BPD is a multifactorial disease and its rising incidence in recent years means that general pediatricians are much more likely to encounter a child born extremely preterm, possibly with BPD, in their clinical practice. Short- and long-term sequelae in VLBW patients may affect not only pulmonary function (principally characterized by an obstructive pattern), but also other aspect including the neurological (neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders), the sensorial (earing and visual impairment), the cardiological (systemic and pulmonary hypertension, reduced exercise tolerance and ischemic heart disease in adult age), nutritional (feeding difficulties and nutritional deficits), and auxological (extrauterine growth restriction).