What is fortification of breast milk for premature babies?

Understanding the Fortification of Breast Milk for Premature Babies
The fortification of breast milk for premature infants is a critical practice aimed at addressing the unique nutritional needs of these vulnerable newborns. Premature babies, particularly those born before 32 weeks of gestation, often face significant challenges in achieving adequate growth and development due to their underdeveloped digestive systems and increased nutrient requirements.
Why Fortification is Necessary
Human milk (HM) is widely recognized as the optimal source of nutrition for infants, including preterm babies. It offers numerous health benefits, such as promoting immune function and reducing the risk of infections. However, studies have shown that while human milk is beneficial, it may not provide sufficient calories, protein, and essential nutrients for very low birth weight infants. This inadequacy can lead to conditions like extrauterine growth restriction, where infants fail to gain weight and grow at expected rates outside the womb.
To combat these deficiencies, healthcare providers often recommend fortifying breast milk with additional nutrients. This process typically involves adding a specialized human milk fortifier that contains extra calories, protein, vitamins, and minerals. The goal is to enhance the nutritional profile of the milk, ensuring that premature infants receive the necessary components for optimal growth and development.
Components of Fortification
Fortifiers are designed to meet the specific needs of preterm infants. They usually contain:
– Calories: Premature infants require more calories per kilogram of body weight than full-term infants to support their rapid growth.
– Protein: Adequate protein intake is crucial for muscle development and overall growth.
– Vitamins and Minerals: Essential nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus, and vitamins A, D, and E are vital for bone health and metabolic functions.
The fortification process is tailored to the individual needs of each infant, taking into account their birth weight, gestational age, and overall health status. This personalized approach helps ensure that each baby receives the right balance of nutrients.
Benefits of Fortification
Research indicates that fortifying human milk can significantly improve growth rates and nutritional outcomes for preterm infants. Studies have shown that infants fed fortified breast milk tend to have better weight gain and growth metrics compared to those receiving unfortified milk. Additionally, fortified breast milk can help reduce the risk of long-term developmental issues, making it a crucial intervention in neonatal care.
Conclusion
The fortification of breast milk for premature babies is a vital practice that addresses their heightened nutritional needs. By enhancing the nutritional content of human milk, healthcare providers can support the growth and development of these infants, helping them thrive in their critical early months. As research continues to evolve, the methods and formulations for fortification are likely to become even more refined, ensuring that the most vulnerable infants receive the best possible start in life.

What is the best milk for preemies?

Human milk is the best source of protein, sugar and fat a baby needs to be healthy, especially for preterm babies who struggle during the first days and weeks of their lives. It also contains many substances that benefit a baby’s immune system, including: Antibodies. Immune factors.

How do you make breast milk fortified with NeoSure?

Care™ NeoSure®
❒ To make 22 calorie/ounce breast milk: Add 1 teaspoon Similac NeoSure Powder to 130 mL or 41⁄3 ounces breast milk. ❒ To make 24 calorie/ounce breast milk: Add 1 teaspoon Similac NeoSure Powder to 70 mL or 21⁄3 ounces breast milk.

What does fortifying breastmilk mean?

Adding a breast milk fortifier, in the form of a powder mixed with the breast milk, provides additional energy, protein, vitamins, minerals and salts needed to help your baby grow. Usually we add breast milk fortifier to mother’s breast milk for babies under 1800g once they are on full milk feeds.

What is an example of fortified milk?

For example, chocolate milk can be fortified with vitamins A and D just like white milk. Yet, it’s often loaded with sugar and additives and should be enjoyed in moderation (28). Finally, choosing fat-free fortified milks may hinder the absorption of vitamins A and D.

What are the side effects of fortifying breast milk?

A potential disadvantage of multi‐nutrient fortification is that increasing nutrient density and osmolarity of human breast milk might interfere with gastric emptying and intestinal peristalsis, resulting in feed intolerance or increasing the risk of necrotising enterocolitis (Ewer 1996; McClure 1996; Gathwala 2008; …

How do you know milk is fortified?

It’s required to be listed on the ingredient label but not necessarily on the front of the carton. Vitamin D has many important health benefits, and drinking vitamin D fortified milk is an easy way to help meet your needs.

What are the risks of fortifying breast milk?

However, because of the substantial variability in human milk composition, routine fortification risks exposing some babies to very high protein intakes, which may be dangerous.

How do you fortify breast milk for preemies?

Many premature infants need extra nutrients added to their mother’s milk to achieve the best growth and development. Premature babies often need extra protein, calcium, phosphorus, and even salt, to build strong bones and healthy organs.

Why do hospitals fortify breast milk?

Premature babies need extra protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals to help them grow and build strong bones. In the NICU, we fortify breast milk (add calories, fat, and proteins) to help preemies grow.

What is fortification of human milk for preterm infants?

Multi-nutrient fortification of breast milk improved rates of weight gain, length gain and head circumference growth in preterm infants. However, the effect sizes were relatively small, and although few long-term data were available for analysis, it appeared that the improvements in growth were only short-term.