Nutritional sufficiency of the newborn is a topic that continues to engage great debate. Delivery of the fetus is marked by the abrupt transition from the fetal nutritional state. This state is marked by a relatively constant supply of nutrients via the maternoplacental circulation, supplemented to a minor degree by enteral absorption of nutrients derived from swallowed amniotic fluid. The transition to an intermittent and wholly enteral route for neonatal nutritional needs is a critical aspect of successful adaptation at birth.During the last century, the almost exclusive use of human milk was abandoned for a time by some in favor of the fashionable (and occasionally truly necessary) use of cow milk–based formula fed by bottle in developed countries. Over the past 50 years, however, most authorities on infant nutrition the (the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others) have advocated human milk for healthy term babies. This recommendation reflects the results of the vast literature supporting breast-feeding and the use of human milk as a superior form of nutrition for infants. The psychological, nutritional, hormonal, immunologic, and economic benefits of human milk are now well established.
Optimal Newborn Nutrition
Because breast-feeding and ingestion of human milk provide optimal intakes of water and nutrients for growth of healthy term newborns over the first months of postnatal life, growth and developmental patterns of infants reared exclusively on human milk have become the benchmarks by which alternative forms of enteral and parenteral nutritional programs are Continue reading »
