Nutritional Strategies for High-Risk Neonates: Interventions and Feeding Practices
A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 July 2026 | Viewed by 14
Special Issue Editor
2. School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT, Australia
Interests: pain management of neonates; infants and children; nutrition and feeding of neonates and infants including gastrointestinal disorders; infant development and assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
High-risk neonates, including infants born preterm, growth-restricted, or medically fragile or those requiring complex surgical care, face significant nutritional challenges during the earliest and most vulnerable stages of life. Optimal nutrition is a foundational imperative that profoundly shapes survival, growth, organ maturation, and long-term neurodevelopment. Over the past decade, advances in neonatal nutrition have accelerated, driven by emerging evidence on human milk bioactivity, the refinement of enteral and parenteral feeding protocols, and an expanding understanding of the microbiome’s influence on early health. Yet clinical practice remains heterogeneous, and many questions persist regarding how best to tailor feeding and nutritional approaches to the diverse needs of high-risk infants.
This Special Issue, titled “Nutritional Strategies for High-Risk Neonates: Interventions and Feeding Practices”, aims to bring together contemporary research, reviews, and clinical insights that illuminate both the progress made and the challenges that remain. Included articles can explore a spectrum of nutritional interventions, from early enteral feeding and human milk fortification to probiotic supplementation, micronutrient strategies, and innovative methods for supporting infants with complex feeding difficulties. Contributions can also examine population-specific considerations, such as infants with congenital heart disease, intrauterine growth restriction, or heightened risk of necrotising enterocolitis, where nutritional decisions can significantly influence outcomes.
There is the need for precision in neonatal nutrition: an approach that recognises the dynamic physiology of the newborn, the importance of individualised care, and the necessity of balancing growth with safety. By assembling these diverse perspectives, this Special Issue aims to support clinicians, researchers, and policy makers in advancing evidence-informed and context-sensitive nutritional care for high-risk neonates so that these vulnerable infants receive optimal nutrition.
Dr. Jann Foster
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- high-risk neonates
- preterm infants
- neonatal nutrition
- enteral feeding
- human milk fortification
- necrotising enterocolitis
- microbiome
- nutritional interventions
- growth and development
- precision nutrition
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