Arora 2005.

Methods	Randomised controlled trial.
Participants	Preterm infants of birth weight < 1500 grams, and < 10 days old, who were receiving enteral feeds.
Interventions	1. Massage with sunflower oil: N = 23 2. Massage without oil: N = 23 3. No massage (or oil): N = 23 Intervention applied for at least 10 days after enrolment. We combined groups 2 and 3 as a single control group for meta‐analyses.
Outcomes	Growth parameters. Invasive infection. Mortality.
Notes	Setting: Regional Neonatal Unit, Associated Lok Nayak Hospital, New Dehli, India (Mar to Dec 2001). Infection and mortality data courtesy of Professor Kumar. SD for change in length and head circumference imputed from Soriano 2000.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Computer‐generated sequence
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Sealed opaque envelopes
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Unblinded parents, caregivers, clinicians and investigators
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Near‐complete follow‐up assessment