Hypoglycemia and poor feeding. In a study conducted
by Wang et al. (2004), 76% of the near-term infants
(defined as 35 to 36 and 6/7 weeks gestation) with poor
feeding had a prolonged hospitalization, compared to the
28.6% of term infants who had poor feeding.
Hypoglycemia was found three times as often in the nearterm
infants compared with the term infants, and nearly
two-thirds of the near-term infants required treatment with
intravenous dextrose (Wang et al., 2004). Dani et al. (2009)
suggested that hypoglycemia in the late-preterm infant
may be due to deficient glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis;
however, poor feeding remains a plausible cause for
hypoglycemia as well.