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Abstract
This study aimed to compare the effect of early versus late trophic feeding on the health status of low birth weight neonates. A comparative descriptive design was utilized on a convenience sample of one hundred low birth weight neonates, fifty of them for early trophic feeding group and the other fifty for late feeding. Sample was collected from two neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in Cairo university hospitals from May 2013 till February 2014 to answer the research question3 Does health status of low birth weight (LBW) neonates who started early trophic feeding better than those who started late trophic feeding?3 Three tools were developed by researcher: socio - demographic data, nutritional recording sheet and observational check list for feeding tolerance signs and these were filled by researcher daily for every neonate from admission till discharge. Results revealed that, there were no statistically significant differences in the clinical and maternal characteristics of neonates in the two groups. The birth weight was increased significantly for early feeding group than late in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd week. Amount of parenteral nutrition, hospital stay were significantly less in early compared to late feeding group; late feeding group had experienced a highly significant incidence of milk intolerance and infection signs in the first week only. The study concluded that the health status of the LBW neonates who started early trophic feeding were better than those who started late trophic feeding. The study recommended applying early trophic feeding to all low birth weight neonates