Micronutrient deficiencies in the preterm neonate.

The nutrition of the premature infant poses a critically important challenge to clinicians. Premature infants are a heterogeneous group; maternal status, gestational age, drug intake, respiratory distress, phototherapy, and infection all conspire to make it extremely unlikely that a recommendation for daily intakes will satisfactorily encompass all babies. Clinical and subclinical deficiencies evidently do occur, and the impact of nutrient imbalance may have serious implications for outcome. If advances in clinical practice mean enhanced survival rates of babies of very small gestational age, then it is of vital importance that we work to establish the most appropriate regimens for vitamin and mineral intakes in this group.