Article- Infant feeding 'may affect brain'

[mom2snugbugs]

Anyone see this article??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7253304.stm

London researchers found preterm babies fed enriched formula milk in their first weeks consistently outperformed other premature babies in IQ tests.

Anyone have info on this??

[amydiane]

The big thing that stood out to me is that none of the babies in the study were fed their own mothers' milk - it was either formula, banked milk, or a combo. I would think that banked milk would be preferable to formula, though....unless banked milk is formulated to the fat and calorie content of a FT mom (preemie moms' milk is typically higher in fat and calories), and the enriched formula helps there.

They also didn't mention any of the increased risks of giving a preemie formula, like higher chances of NEC. There may be something to this, but I just wish they would go over the risks and benefits of all the options and then let the parents decide (sorry, sore spot with me).

I hope this made sense....I've got a nasty cold and my head is swimming a bit.

[sapphire_chan]

They don't enrich donor milk given to preemies? : Do they somehow think that there are all these moms with babies in the NICU just pumping away to give milk to other babies??

[amydiane]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

They don't enrich donor milk given to preemies? : Do they somehow think that there are all these moms with babies in the NICU just pumping away to give milk to other babies??

I don't know if they mix it so it's higher fat and calories (like put more of the hindmilk in it). Our NICU didn't use donor milk, so I don't have any experience with it directly. They did use a cow-milk-based fortifier added to my EBM, which has a lot of the same risks as formula. And you're right, many preemie moms struggle to make enough for their own LOs, let alone being able to donate! (I personally was able to, but only after we were home and had established BFing and I was so paranoid about my supply after struggling for so long that I kept pumping at night.)

[gen24]

I think the big problem with donor milk is that they pasteurize it so it kills a lot of good stuff in it...