Premature Babies given enriched milk have higher IQ than breastfed ones?

[gaialice]

I just read on a popular newspaper that they did a scientific study on the effect of enriched formula on the IQ of preemies. The results are very surprising, to say the least:
"The researchers distributed three different formulas. The first was enriched milk with extra protein, fat, calcium, phosphorous, iron, zinc, copper and several other micronutrients. The second received "bank" breast milk, while the third was given a mix of enriched and bank milk. In every comparison, the child who got the enriched milk consistently performed better than the other groups."
You can see the article here.

[homewithtwinsmama]

Again, I say that enriched and banked milk is NOT really true breastmilk. The banked milk gets pasteurized so that many of the living properties are lost. I consider this a poorly designed and possibly misleading study because none of the babies in the study were getting pure breastmilk, fresh from the source. My own super preemie was given exclusive bm from me (when my supply was late I even refused banked milk and made them give her milk from a friend of mine who had just lost a preemie baby and had milk to spare - unpasteurized. And while its anecdotal, she is defying all predictions on development and is actually one of the brightest of my children at age 2.

[gaialice]

Originally Posted by homewithtwinsmama

Again, I say that enriched and banked milk is NOT really true breastmilk. The banked milk gets pasteurized so that many of the living properties are lost. I consider this a poorly designed and possibly misleading study because none of the babies in the study were getting pure breastmilk, fresh from the source. My own super preemie was given exclusive bm from me (when my supply was late I even refused banked milk and made them give her milk from a friend of mine who had just lost a preemie baby and had milk to spare - unpasteurized. And while its anecdotal, she is defying all predictions on development and is actually one of the brightest of my children at age 2.

Thank you for this. I could tell there was something completely wrong with the study, but I like to have some ammunition in case this comes up in a conversation.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by homewithtwinsmama

Again, I say that enriched and banked milk is NOT really true breastmilk.

This is so true. If you go back to the original study (A Lucas, R Morley, and T J Cole, Randomised trial of early diet in preterm babies and later intelligence quotient
BMJ, Nov 1998; 317: 1481 - 1487), you can read that the choices were "regular formula" "special formula" or "breastmilk supplimented with either regular or special formula". No baby was exclusively breastfed.

[MaryJaneLouise]

Here's a previous discussion on this report. Most of this is due to crappy journalism / science reporting:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...1#post10608461

[leafwood]

I also thought that women who give birth to premature infants produce special/different quality breastmilk geared toward a premies needs....so, really the study only says that the enriched milk is better than random breastmilk (if even that)....nothing at all about milk from the mom....that milk would likely be enriched compared to random breastmilk.

Ugh! These studies are so frustrating b/c they completely mislead people.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by leafwood

so, really the study only says that the enriched milk is better than random breastmilk.

It doesn't even go that far! The breastmilk was never exclusively given - there was always supplimentation of a formula of some kind. So really they can't comment on breastfeeding at all.

I agree with your comment leafwood - the way the study was reported was really misleading. And frustrating because people believe the news reports, which aren't even based on reporting the actual study, not to mention the flaws in the study itself. Sigh.

[gaialice]

Thank you for the exlanations and for pointing me to the other thread, very good points made there!