Neonatology: feeding a preterm with immature suck-swallow: practice question

The best answer is D, Orogastric tube feeds of expressed breast milk. Coordination of suck, swallow and breathing matures at about 32 to 34 weeks.

Oral feeding risks aspiration and apnoea when the reflexes are not coordinated.

Bottle feeding carries the same aspiration risk and gives up the benefit of mother's milk.

Enteral feeding is preferred in a stable baby, and parenteral nutrition alone risks sepsis and gut atrophy.

It tests Neonatology: feeding a preterm with immature suck-swallow in Pediatrics. Until then, expressed mother's milk is given by orogastric tube, with non-nutritive sucking and skin-to-skin contact, and oral feeding is started as readiness signs appear.

We tag it as an application question: it asks you to use a fact on a patient or a finding. The tag is our own editorial judgement, not an official difficulty rating, so read the reason for every option, not only the answer.

Memorise milestones and the vaccine schedule as tables and revise them often. Then use the flashcards and the other Pediatrics questions on this site to test what stuck.

No. It is an original practice item (editorial status: sample, version 1). NextPrep does not publish recalled or leaked questions, and independent faculty review of this item has not been completed yet, so confirm important facts in a standard textbook.