To the Editor.— In their article "Preventing Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Neonates," Brown and Sweet (240:2452, 1978) conclude that infants at risk "must not be fed early" by mouth. They rightly advocate total intravenous feeding until oral feeding can be established.A word of caution is in order regarding the advice to postpone oral feeding. It is evident that formula feeding is what the authors have in mind. There are good reasons to believe that the conclusion will be exactly the opposite if natural breast-feeding, including early intake of raw colostrum, is meant. Fresh breast milk protects against intestinal infections.1 Indeed, experimental work with rats2 has shown that suckling protects newborn rats against necrotizing enterocolitis induced experimentally by hypoxia, while formula feeding allows the fulminant disease to develop. Necrotizing enterocolitis is rare in Norway. A recent report from our hospital3 suggests that the common practice of early breast-feeding
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
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