Insufficient early weight gain in preterm babies and influence on weight at 12 months.

Relations between the amount and duration of insufficient early gain in weight and later catch up and absolute weight at 1 year of corrected age were investigated in 30 preterm babies of greater than 32 weeks' gestation. There were no significant correlations to suggest that insufficient early weight gain affected later patterns of weight despite individual weights at 1 year generally being distributed in lower centile channels. These findings have important clinical implications for the feeding of preterm babies.