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Ontogeny of the gastrointestinal system and its impact on feeding the preterm infant.

The nutritional management of premature infants is a challenging area for neonatal clinicians for a number of reasons. These include lack of knowledge about when, what, and how to feed; limited clinical experience; and wide variations in practice. New practices in the nutritional management of premature infants must take into consideration the structural and functional maturity of the gastrointestinal system and environmental influences on this system. This article presents current knowledge of embryology and ontogeny of the premature infant's gastrointestinal system and explains how this knowledge may be applied to clinical practice.