Protein requirements – are the recommendation too high?

Very low birth weight infants are frequent undernourished. Poor nutrition and poor growth are associated with compromised neurodevelopment. Walter Mihatsch reviews the protein recommendations for preterm infants and point out the importance of adequate protein supply to prevent growth failure and to avoid excessive intakes specially in sick infants. He also discusses methods of individualized protein fortification as the alternative to provide higher protein intakes for the preterm infants when needed.