Despite working more than 40 hours a week running her business, Marielise Garcia of Miami, Fla., finds time to make baby food for her 13-month-old daughter, Madison. She is thrilled that the toddler wants to try everything and readily devours veggies and meat. Looking at the 20-plus-pound little girl today, it is hard to imagine that she was born weighing only 2 pounds.

Like many premature infants, Madison (born at 30 weeks) began life being fed through a tube. The baby spent 47 days in the hospital before going home at double her birth weight. Progressing from pre-digestive milk to regular formula to whole milk and solid foods, the only eating-related problem the child still suffers from is reflux, for which she continues to take medicine. "She is normal, just started a little behind the starting line, but is catching up fast," says Garcia.

For stories like that of Madison to have the best outcome possible, it is essential to monitor nutritional needs. While each premature baby presents his or her own special concerns that are best addressed by the child's doctor and other experts, nutritional issues for preterm infants generally fall into two categories: caloric content (giving enough calories to the baby to allow adequate growth of the body and the brain) and the actual delivery of nutrition to the baby.

"Even healthy preterm infants have more nutritional needs than term babies," says Dr. Eric Reynolds, a neonatologist at the Kentucky Children's Hospital and an associate professor at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. "Whereas most term babies require about 85 to 100 calories per kilogram of body weight, preterm infants often require greater than 120 calories per kilogram per day."

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