Supplemental Oxygen and Gastric pH in Unfed Preterm Infants

Ontogeny of oral drug absorption processes in children

“…The mean gastric pH in newborns minutes after delivery is 7.05, and within a few hours it declines to a pH of 2.7 [13,28]. A less acidic stomach environment in these newborns after delivery is most likely explained by swallowing of amnion fluids, which is supported by the decrease in pH within a few hours after birth [28].…”

“…Age-related changes in oral drug absorption processes 2.1 Gastric pH Gastric pH is an important factor determining the stability of a drug passing through the stomach. Studies on gastric pH across the pediatric age range used pH measurement of gastric fluid aspirates and 24-h intragastric pH monitoring [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Figure 1 displays the mean and median gastric pH values in healthy children in the first 3 months of life.…”

“…More than 70 years ago, Miller observed a decrease in acidity over the first 10 days of life [30]. Many more recent studies report that the gastric pH declines within a few hours after birth [13,28]. Miller titrated gastric juice with NaOH and then determined the amount of HCl as a measure of acidity.…”

“…B: Gastric aspirates 3 min after delivery; caesarean section [12]. C: Less than 3 h after delivery [13]. C, D, F, G: Continuous 24-h gastric pH monitoring [13,18,19,25].…”

“…C: Less than 3 h after delivery [13]. C, D, F, G: Continuous 24-h gastric pH monitoring [13,18,19,25]. A, B, E, H: Gastric aspirates obtained by gentle suction [12,12,27,26].…”