Preterm Nutrition Through Discharge: A Case-Based Challenge

Tara Bastek, MD, MPH, and pediatric nutrition specialist, Karen Varga, RD, LDN, CNSC, provide detailed information to underscore the significance of proper nutritional intake in the NICU. During this review, interactive cases track preterm infants through the NICU to discharge, presenting challenges and solutions that focus on the latest nutrient intake recommendations, and overcoming the potential for midgrowth failure while transitioning from parenteral to enteral nutrition during acute, convalescent, and discharge feeding phases. The cases address how to assess growth during significant transition phases or backfill growth with micronutrients. Individualized formula fortification strategies are also discussed to help parents and providers follow prescribed feeding plans to optimize long-term outcomes.

We recommend completing, Redesigning Postdischarge Nutrition in the NICU, prior to this course.

• Profile

  Tara K. Bastek, MD, MPH

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  Tara K. Bastek, MD, MPH, is a board-certified pediatrician and neonatologist with WakeMed Physician Practices, a division of the WakeMed Health and Hospital network in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is an attending neonatologist at the Raleigh, Cary, and North campuses and medical director of the Raleigh neonatal intensive care unit. Prior to joining WakeMed, Dr. Bastek was an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

  Dr. Bastek received her medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, completed an internship and residency at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, and a fellowship in newborn medicine/neonatology at Boston Children’s Hospital through Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bastek earned her master's degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health and completed a fellowship in medical ethics at Harvard Medical School.

  Dr. Bastek has been the principal investigator on research projects involving studies of both regional and international prenatal consultations for extremely premature infants. Her published work includes a chapter on decision-making and ethical dilemmas in the Manual of Neonatal Care, as well as articles in the Journal of Perinatology and Pediatrics. Dr. Bastek serves as chair or in a leadership capacity for numerous WakeMed committees. Her national affiliations include membership in the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.

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  Tara K. Bastek, MD, MPH

  Neonatologist
  Chair, Ethics Committee
  WakeMed Health and Hospitals
  Raleigh, North Carolina

• Profile

  Karen M. Varga, RD, LDN, CNSC

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  Karen M. Varga, RD, LDN, CNSC, is a pediatric nutrition specialist at WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh and Cary, North Carolina. She received a bachelor of science degree in dietetics from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and completed a Sodexho Marriott Dietetic Internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

  As a certified nutrition support clinician, Ms. Varga provides assessments and medical nutritional therapy recommendations and education for pediatric and adult patients. Her areas of responsibility include the neonatal and pediatric intensive care inpatient units, as well the pediatric surgery G-tube and special infant care outpatient clinics.

  Ms. Varga is a member of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She serves on several WakeMed nutritional committees and has been credited with a number of quality improvement initiatives. She is also the recipient of a recent award for providing exceptional patient care.

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  Karen M. Varga, RD, LDN, CNSC

  Pediatric Nutrition Specialist
  WakeMed Health and Hospitals
  Raleigh, North Carolina