Three-year growth and developmental follow-up of very low birth weight infants fed own mother's milk, a premature infant formula, or one of two standard formulas.

A cohort of 40 very low birth weight (VLBW) infants was followed until they reached 3 years of age. These infants were originally part of a feeding trial in the early postnatal period whereby they were fed either their own mother's milk, a standard whey-predominant formula, a casein-predominant formula, or a premature formula. Those fed the latter formula grew significantly better while in the hospital and had no biochemical derangements. At 3 years of age, there were no significant intergroup differences with respect to growth or development. There was a positive correlation between head growth in hospital and weight at 3 years, but there were no other significant relationships between early postnatal growth and growth parameters at 3 years. Socioeconomic status was the only predictor of developmental scores at 3 years of age. No adverse effects from early metabolic acidosis or alterations of amino acid profiles during the neonatal period were detectable at 3 years of age. However, the small sample size of this study may have missed true differences in outcome measures at 3 years, and larger studies are required to examine these questions further.