ABSTRACT
Nutritional management of the preterm or sick term infant is essential for survival and an optimal outcome. Nutritional needs of the preterm infant differ from the term infant, but they also differ for each infant according to the infant’s gestation, degree of growth retardation, postnatal age and accompanying disease (Steer et al. 1992). Nurses are faced with many challenges as they aim to meet the nutritional goals of the infant in their care. At the same time, nurses need to decide on the most appropriate method of feeding according to the individual infant’s stage of development. There remains an uncertainty about feeding preterm infants despite a 50-year record of research in nutrition in the preterm infant. This uncertainty comes from a lack of knowledge on how preterm infants are fed in terms of their long-term outcome (Lucas 1993).
