Presented by Mandy Brown Belfort, MD, MPH

In this presentation, Mandy Brown Belfort, MD, MPH, highlights current practices and ongoing questions regarding the optimal nutritional assessment of preterm infants. Dr. Belfort discusses the importance of accurately assessing nutritional status in preterm infants, with an emphasis on serial anthropometry using growth standards. The relative limitations of the reference fetus standard and the potential advantages of using preterm postnatal standards are reviewed. Looking to the future, Dr. Belfort also discusses the need for inexpensive and portable methods to monitor body composition in preterm infants and data on the use of bioelectrical impedance analysis, a promising investigational tool for measuring fat-free mass in the NICU.

Learning Objectives

• Evaluate the impact of nutritional care in the NICU on the lifelong health of preterm infants
• Describe established and emerging methods for obtaining clinically relevant anthropometric measurements in the NICU
• Discuss the implications of fat-free mass and fat mass on the health of preterm infants

About the Speaker

Mandy Brown Belfort, MD, MPH

Associate Chief of Research, Department of Pediatrics, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Activity Format

This activity is an online enduring material. Successful completion is achieved by reading and/or viewing the material, reflecting on its implications in your practice, and completing the assessment component. You can view and print a certificate when you successfully complete the course and pass the posttest. Your certificate will be tracked in your account profile.