ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an individualised approach to nutrition and feeding neonates in intensive care and supporting families in their choice for feeding. It discusses the model of best practice in supporting the journey to suck-feeding from the Speech and Language Therapist’s perspective. It is important to consider how the neonatal nurse can work collaboratively with the wider feeding team to support the infant and parents’ feeding journey while enabling bonding and attachment between the baby and their family. The gastrointestinal tract’s role in ingestion, digestion and elimination is important for long-term growth and survival in infants. Development occurs in utero, and the tract is structurally prepared for oral feeding by 20 weeks’ gestation. Goals for nutritional support during the first few days of life are the maintenance of fluid status, glucose homeostasis, and normal serum electrolytes and mineral concentrations. The most effective method.
