Early versus delayed enteral nutrition for neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy undergoing therapeutic hypothermia: a randomized controlled trial

Table 4 Details of enteral feeding at the two groups

		EEN group (N = 42)	DEN group (N = 38)	T/Z/χ2	p- value
Initiation time (days) of enteral feeding ^a		2.00 ± 0.91	4.84 ± 0.97	−13.492	< 0.001
Feeding delivery method, n (%)
At initial enteral feeds day	Nasogastric tubes feeding	10(23.81)	12(31.58)	0.604	0.437
At initial enteral feeds day	Oral feeding	32(76.19)	26(68.42)	0.604	0.437
At discharge home day	Nasogastric tubes feeding	0 (0.00)	0(0.00)		1.000 ^c
At discharge home day	Oral feeding	42(100.00)	38(100.00)		1.000 ^c
Feeding types of milk, n (%)
At initial enteral feeds day	Breastfeeding ^d	3(7.14)	2(5.26)		1.000 ^c
At initial enteral feeds day	Pure formula feeding ^e	39 (92.86)	36(94.74)		1.000 ^c
At discharge home day	Breastfeeding ^d	29 (69.05)	21(55.26)	1.617	0.203
At discharge home day	Pure formula feeding ^e	13 (30.95)	17(44.74)	1.617	0.203
Feeding volume of milk, (ml/kg/d)
At initial enteral feeds day ^a		13.62 ± 2.22	14.43 ± 2.84	−1.412	0.162
At reaching full enteral feeds day ^a,f		125.79 ± 3.40	124.67 ± 3.98	1.372	0.175
Speed of feeding advancement
From initial to reaching full enteral feeds day ^a,f		14.79 ± 3.69	15.72 ± 4.38	- 0.979	0.332

^a Mean and standard deviation
_b Median and interquartile range
^c Fisher’ exact test
^d Breastfeeding include exclusive and mixed breastfeeding
^e Pure formulas feeding include common full-term formula, extensively hydrolyzed protein formula and amino acid formula
^f There were only 62 cases (33 cases in the EEN group and 29 in the DEN group) were analyzed with this variable who had reached the goal of full enteral feeding volume before discharged home

ISSN: 1824-7288