Given that advancing feeding volumes increase the risk of NEC without providing benefits for motor function or feeding tolerance, neonatologists should consider using minimal feeding volumes until future trials assess the safety of advancing feeding volumes.

A diagnosis of NEC in the very low birth weight infant imposes a significant additional financial burden to the individual patient as well as the neonatal community as a whole. This expense justifies additional research into preventive measures and potentially costly therapies aimed at reducing the incidence of NEC. These data also provide an estimated cost to compare the cost effectiveness of new preventive measures for NEC.

No abstract

No abstract