Troche 1995.

Methods	Randomised controlled trial
Participants	Infants born at 25 to 30 weeks' gestation with respiratory distress, an umbilical artery catheter in situ, and an anticipated need for mechanical ventilation for at least 3 days. Infants with asphyxia or respiratory failure despite ventilatory support were excluded Setting: University of Boston, USA
Interventions	Minimal enteral nutrition (N = 16) vs. enteral fasting (N = 13) Infants in the minimal enteral nutrition group received maternal breast milk or standard formula beginning within 24 hours after birth at a rate of 0.5 to 1.0 ml/hour until the umbilical artery catheter was removed. Controls were fasted until the umbilical arterial catheter was removed. Both groups received parenteral nutrition beginning on day 3
Outcomes	Feeding tolerance; days to full enteral feeding Incidence of necrotising enterocolitis Time to regain birth weight Mortality
Notes	In infants < 800g at birth, feeds were given by continuous infusion, for those > 800 g feeds were given as boluses
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Random numbers table
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Unclear
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Not stated but likely that care givers and investigators were aware of intervention group after allocation
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not stated
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	2 infants developed necrotising enterocolitis but were then subsequently excluded from growth data