Preterm Birth

The neoGASTRIC trial: Avoiding routine gastric residual volume measurement in neonatal critical care, a multi-centre, randomised controlled trial

Addressing priority 6: NIHR research in progress.

The neoGASTRIC trial aims to see if premature babies can safely get to full milk feeds more quickly.

Fluids Exclusively Enteral from Day 1 (FEED1)

Addressing priority 6: NIHR research in progress.

Around 12% of preterm infants are born between 30-33 weeks gestation forming 42% of routine admissions to neonatal units. Most are started on intravenous (IV) fluids and milk feeds are slowly introduced via gastric feeding tube. Clinicians are wary of milk feeding due to a potentially life-threatening condition called necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). Evidence suggests that feeding preterm infants earlier and faster does not increase NEC and could reduce the risk of infection and death. Full milk feeding and avoiding of IV fluids may have other benefits: less pain from interventions like IV drips, reduced medicalisation of care, greater parental involvement, and parent-infant bonding. This study investigates the hypothesis that in infants born at 30-33 weeks gestational age, starting full milk feeds from day 1 when compared to current practice of parenteral nutrition/IV fluids with gradual milk feeding will reduce length of hospital stay by 2 days.