What do Preemies Need?
Premature babies, or ‘preemies’ in the NICU, are defined by being born under 37 weeks gestational age. The severity of the conditions associated with prematurity vary from infant to infant, but the risk for comlpications increases with lower gesational ages, and lower birth weights.
Preemie babies have different needs than those of a normal newborn infant. Because of the special care they require, premature babies often are admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where their unique needs can be met.
The NICU will provide the preemie the most comfortable environment for optimal growth, nutrition, and respiratory care, until he or she is ready to go home.
Nutrition
Premature babies are different than newborn infants because they grow at a much faster rate. Therefore, their diet needs to be different, and fed at a different pace. Since preemies have digestive systems that are not fully developed, they are fed slower to prevent gastrointestinal complications, such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
One of the best sources of nutrition for a preemie is their mother’s breast milk. Breast milk is advantageous because it has unique antibody qualities to help prevent and fight infection. It also has special proteins to promote growth. Often, when a preterm baby is too young to breastfeed, the mother can pump, or express, her breast milk so that it can be used by the NICU staff to feed to the baby.
Another option for preemie nutrition is called total parenteral nutrition, or TPN. This allows nutrients to be fed to the baby via intravenous lines until the preemie’s body can tolerate other methods of feeding.
Also, premature infants in the NICU will have labs checked as often as needed to ensure elements of the blood are within normal value ranges. If a certain chemical or mineral in the preemie’s blood is out of the normal range, the physician or practitioner can modify the feeding supplements to help stabilize those values.
Oxygen Management
Often, premature infant’s lungs are immature and underdeveloped, incapable of breathing on their own. As such, breathing machines, such as ventilators and oscillators, CPAP, and nasal canulas are freuqently used to help the infant breathe. Over time, a preemie will ‘graduate’ from a ventilator or oscillator to CPAP or nasal canula, or even room air as their lungs continue to grow and develop.
Warmth
Premature infants do not have the ability to regulate their own body temperature, much as normal newborns tend to be capable of doing. Because they lack body fat, like a newborn baby does, they tend to get cold and their body temperature can drop quickly. For these reasons, preemies are often placed in incubators or radiant warmers.
An incubator is an enclosed bed that can regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment the preemie is in. The radiant warmer is an open bed that can also regulate temperature, but is exposed to room air due to NICU staff needing frequent access to the baby.
Even with a swaddle of blankets, preterm babies can still get cold, which is why incubators and radiant warmers are so essential to their care.
The Basic Preemie Needs
Nutrition, oxygen management, and warmth…those are the basic needs of a premature infant. As the preemie grows and develops, the critical aspects of these needs become less severe, and begin to normalize towards that of a normal newborn baby.
However, the more severe the prematurity, the higher the risk for long-term complications, and parents must be prepared for the lasting effects of being born early.
Updated: June 2011
