
Read: about
the research in Agricultural Research. Feeding
Preemies for Optimal DevelopmentBy Jesús
García June 13, 2001Agricultural Research Service scientists at
the Childrens Nutrition Research
Center in Houston, Texas, led by Douglas G. Burrin, have found that certain
nutrients stimulate intestinal growth and maintain the mucous lining in
neonatal, or prematurely born, animals. Their research suggests that the right
amount of enteral feeding--feeding by mouth--may also benefit premature human
infants. Preemies suffer from a variety of gastrointestinal complications that
prevent doctors from feeding them in a normal fashion. They often have to
depend on parenteral nutrition--that is, tube feeding that bypasses the
intestinal tract--for their survival. Total parenteral nutrition (TPN) allows
doctors to meet a premature infants nutritional requirements for growth
and development when the infants size or condition precludes enteral
feeding. ARS scientists are now trying to determine just how much enteral feeding is
needed to optimize intestinal development. Researchers used neonatal piglets--whose gastrointestinal development and
function, body composition and metabolism are similar to those of human
neonatal infants--to quantify the minimal amounts of enteral nutrition
necessary to stimulate and normalize growth of small intestines in preemies.
They found that the minimum amount of enteral nutrients needed is 40 percent,
and that 60 percent or more is needed to normalize intestinal growth, as
opposed to the 5 to 10 percent previously used. The researchers are also using this approach to determine whether specific
nutrients can be fed enterally to maximally stimulate intestinal growth and
functional development. An article describing this research in greater detail appears in the June
issue of Agricultural
Research, ARS monthly magazine. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures chief scientific research agency. Scientific contact: Douglas G. Burrin, ARS Childrens Nutrition
Research Center, Baylor College of
Medicine, Houston, Texas, phone (713) 798-7053, fax (713) 798-7057,
[email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture |