Bifidobacteria and lactobacilli are commonly found in breast-fed infants; 19 and most of the NEC in VLBW infants occurred before 6-8 weeks of age; 20 therefore, we hypothesized that early oral probiotics contains Bifidobacteria and lactobacilli fed to preterm VLBW infants for 6 weeks could reduce the incidence and severity of NEC.