Abstract:
The prevalence of preterm births is relatively high in all countries of the world and is about 7–15%. Complete nutrition is the key to a child’s healthy growth. Undoubtedly, breastfeeding (BF) should be a priority for preterm infants and it is necessary at all levels of medical/consultative care to support women’s desire to breastfeed. According to the recommendations of the WHO and according to local protocols, full-term healthy children should be introduced to complementary foods at the age of 6 months, since BF and adapted mixtures from this period can no longer fully meet the needs of the baby. Determining specific terms for the introduction of the first complementary foods (CF) for preterm infants in Ukraine and international practice remains debatable. Some studies show that the introduction of CF among preterm infants is most often started at 4 months (17.1±0.23 weeks), provided that the child has reached a weight of at least 5 kg and do not separately emphasize the need to take into account the signs readiness of the child before the introduction of the first products, a list of recommended products is not provided. The American Association of Pediatricians in the Multidisciplinary Guidelines for the Care of Late Preterm Infants recommends introducing CF no earlier than 6 months of age. The recommendations of the British Association of Pediatricians emphasize the need to start the introduction of CF between 5 and 8 months of passport age, if the child has the necessary motor skills. That is, the development and implementation of algorithms for introducing complementary foods to premature babies and counseling parents is a topical task. The aim was to study the parents and primary health care workers awareness concerning the peculiarities of infants born preterm nutrition, timing of complementary foods (CF) introduction and adherence to the implementation of medical recommendations.
