INTRODUCTION
Postnatal growth is an important predictor of growth and development throughout childhood in preterm infants 1-3 but despite knowing the importance of optimizing growth rates in the neonatal period, reducing the rate of extra-uterine growth restriction is still one of the great challenges for neonatal intensive care units (NICU).4-6 The difficulties in providing adequate nutritional support in the hospitalization phase7-11 of newborns with very low weight is one of the main reasons for this postnatal growth deficit.
A study to assess the nutritional practices adopted by four neonatal intensive care units, with different levels of complexity and dimensions, showed that after analysis and adaptation of the routines of each center to the recommendations established in the literature, there was a reduction in the number of days for starting parenteral and enteral nutrition, a shorter time for achieving exclusive enteral nutrition and an energy supply of 120 kcal/kg/day, reduced length of hospital stay, and reduced percentage of children with weight below the 10th percentile upon discharge.1
The objective of this study was to assess the nutritional practices in a NICU and their relationship to the growth of preterm newborns during hospitalization.