Among infants, enteral feeding practices—in which nutrients are delivered by mouth or directly to the stomach by feeding tube—may influence risk for NEC, a life-threatening gastrointestinal disease that primarily affects infants born preterm (before 37 weeks of pregnancy).
NICHD formed the NEC Working Group of Council, a subgroup of NICHD’s National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council, in response to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) request to evaluate the current state of the science on enteral nutrition and NEC in preterm infants.
The working group held three meetings in August 2024 to:
- Assess the scientific evidence including:
- Risk factors for NEC
- Nutritional support for preterm infants
- Associations between enteral feeding practices in preterm infants
- Factors that may protect against or increase risk for NEC
- Identify important research gaps
- Make recommendations for potential future research directions
The working group submitted its Final NEC Report (PDF 1 MB) to the HHS Secretary on September 16, 2024.
More Information
At the September 2024 NACHHD Council meeting, the working group co-chairs presented summary findings and recommendations (the presentation [PDF 495 KB] and discussion are at the beginning of the VideoCast recording).
Contacts
- Press-related inquiries:
nichdpress@mail.nih.gov
- General inquiries:
necworkinggroup@mail.nih.gov
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