Early feeding factors associated with exclusive versus partial human milk feeding in neonates receiving intensive care

Objective:to evaluate early feeding factors associated with exclusive human milk (ehm) feeding at discharge in a cohort of human milk-fed infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (nicu).study design:retrospective cohort of consecutively discharged infants from two nicus over a 12-month period who received any human milk during the 24 h before hospital discharge. we used logistic regression to evaluate early feeding factors associated with ehm feeding at discharge.result:we evaluated a total of 264 infants. ehm-fed infants were twice as likely to receive human milk at the first feeding compared with partial human milk-fed infants (65% vs 32%; p<0.01). in multivariable analysis, including adjustment for race and type of maternal insurance, infants receiving human milk as the initial feeding, compared with formula, had a greater odds of ehm feeding at hospital discharge (adjusted odds ratio (or)=3.41; 95% confidence interval (ci)=1.82 to 6.39; p<0.001).conclusion:among infants admitted to the nicu whose mothers provide human milk, those receiving human milk as the first feeding were more likely to receive ehm feeding at discharge.