Researchers call for better ways to track preemies’ nutrition

When a baby is born prematurely, nutrition is one of the important elements of care. But a new survey of 34 neonatal intensive care units found that doctors didn’t have optimal tools for determining a preemie’s caloric intake, and often ended up doing calculations by hand — which can both take up precious time and lead to errors, the authors say. Because it can be a complicated measurement to take, the method can differ from one NICU to another. The researchers are calling for a standardized, computerized system for tracking how many calories these babies are receiving, so doctors are better able to determine what yields the best outcomes.