Nutrition & Feeding

I’d love to hear from the 99NICU community about your go-to references. A few years ago, our team cared for a remarkable mother whose story reminded us how much nuance—and teamwork—breastfeeding counseling can require. She had undergone a liver transplant as a teenager and remained on lifelong anti-rejection medications. Years later, she delivered a healthy full-term baby and had a strong, heartfelt wish to breastfeed. As you can imagine, her medications raised questions about safety and infant exposure. Instead of defaulting to “no,” our team—neonatologist, clinical pharmacist, and the mother’s own transplant specialist—reviewed each drug carefully. We dove deep into pha…

Breastfeeding mothers having propofol sedation at surgery, may have green discoloration of the breast milk, I just read a short clinical pharma column in the Swedish Medical Journal. I found this longer case report from Canada about this, it seems propofol metabolites can discolour biological fluids other than urine. The authors advice no breast feeding until the color has normalised. Rare thing but still interesting to know and be aware of! https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6306180/

Dear colleagues, I would love to read your thoughts on how you manage moderate/late preterm infants admitted in the NICU who do not have enough mother's milk. How do you feed them? Do you prefer to keep them on IV fluids/PN until MOM is available? Do you have unlimited donor milk to use for every baby? How is your level of concern about cow's milk allergy (CMA)? I work in a teaching hospital in South Brazil and I'm an enthusiast (aren't we all?) on improving breastfeeding rates in the NICU. How things work here: we have a limited resource of human donor milk, so we prioritize it to newborns under 32 weeks (when MOM is not available, of course). For babies older than that,…

Dear colleagues, We are a medium sized hospital in Germany with a donor milk bank. We are managing the procedures manually right now and are looking for a digital /software solution. Any suggestions for a usable software? Yours Nele Howold

Is there any good quality evidence around probiotics and reduction or increase in infections in neonates?

So thankful to Dandlelion Medical for this opportunity on May 8, 2025. Over 1500 NICU clinicians registered for this FREE live presentation and now it is available online for FREE CEU's at https://dandlelionmedical.com/webinars/

Do you use mct oil in feeding premature babies?

What I would like neonatologists to know about the Norwegian RCT on Immediate SSC for Very Preterm Neonates A recent randomized clinical trial published in JAMA Network Open challenges assumptions about the neurodevelopmental impact of immediate skin-to-skin contact (SSC) for very preterm infants (28–31 weeks’ gestation). Conducted across three Norwegian neonatal units (2014–2020), the study compared 2 hours of SSC in the delivery room versus standard incubator care, following 108 stable preterm neonates until age 2–3 years. While the primary outcome—neurodevelopmental scores on the Bayley-III—showed no difference between groups, the trial confirmed SSC’s significant ben…

Is there any role of DHA supplements in preterm babies especially ELBW

When an ELBW neonate is on Amino acid infusion what is the upper limit of blood Urea that must be considered before stopping or reducing the amino acid infusion