BIGG

Guidelines on optimal feeding of low birth-weight infants in low- and middle-income countries

Ano de publicação: 2011

Low birth weight (LBW) has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as weight at birth less than 2500 g. The global prevalence of LBW is 15.5%, which means that about 20.6 million such infants are born each year, 96.5% of them in developing countries. There is significant variation in LBW rates across the United Nations regions, with the highest incidence in South-Central Asia (27.1%) and the lowest in Europe (6.4%). The guidelines focus on the feeding of clinically stable LBW infants in low- and middle-income countries. Some of the questions and recommendations focus only on VBLW infants (birth weight less than 1.5 kg). They do not specifically address the feeding of infants with a birth weight less than 1.0 kg (ELBW), who are often clinically unstable and may require parenteral nutrition.