Growth Assessment in Preterm Children from Birth to Preschool Age

Preterm infant growth is a major health indicator and needs to be monitored with an appropriate growth curve to achieve the best developmental and growth potential while avoiding excessive caloric intake that is linked to metabolic syndrome and hypertension later in life. New international standards for size at birth and postnatal growth for preterm infants are available and need implementation in clinical practice. A prospective, single center observational study was conducted to evaluate the in-hospital and long-term growth of 80 preterm infants with a mean gestational age of 33.3 ± 2.2 weeks, 57% males. Size at birth and at discharge were assessed using the INTERGROWTH-21(ST) standards, at preschool age with World Health Organization (WHO) child growth standards. The employment of INTERGROWTH-21(ST) Preterm Postnatal longitudinal standards during the in-hospital follow-up significantly reduced the diagnosis of short term extrauterine growth restriction when compared to commonly used cross sectional neonatal charts, with significant lower loss of percentiles between birth and term corrected age (p < 0.0001). The implementation of a package of standards at birth, preterm postnatal growth standards and WHO child growth standards proved to be consistent, with correlation between centile at birth and at follow-up, and therefore effective in monitoring growth in a moderate and late preterm infant cohort without chronic or major morbidities. Infants identified as small for gestational age at birth showed significantly more frequently a need for auxological referral.