How to Help Your Preterm Baby Gain Weight Fast! - Dr. Vimal Kumar | Doctors' Circle

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:06][Music] Hi, I'm Dr. Vimal, Consultant Pediatrician &  Neonatologist at Cloudnine Hospital, Bangalore.

[00:00:16]One of the common questions that parents ask  is, “How do I make my preterm baby grow?”

[00:00:20]To address this, let’s look  at what is in your hands to do to try and help the babies gain weight.

[00:00:25]One, ensure that the baby is being fed adequately.  Preterm babies often might feed directly on the breast but may not be able to take a lot of milk,  and hence in these babies, especially babies who are smaller than 1.8 kgs, we would definitely  top it up with expressed breast milk or use formula as appropriate to make sure that we have  a minimum volume of milk being given to the baby.

[00:00:47]In addition to this, doctors might  quite commonly add fortifiers to milk to help improve the calorie density and  improve the baby’s weight gain ultimately.

[00:00:56]Now, beyond these two, one other important thing  is to make sure that the baby’s temperature is well maintained. Remember, if the baby  gets cold, the baby will burn calories trying to just keep itself warm rather than  channel those calories towards weight gain.

[00:01:08]So ensure that you’re feeding the baby  well, following all the medicines that the doctors advised you to give,  and make sure the baby is warm.