| Home
> Baby Mine News Center
> Human milk still best bet for premature newborns' survival
Human milk still best bet for premature newborns' survival
Click here to
see our selection of Baby and Toddler products.
by Dr. Grant Morrow
Before the 20 th century, many newborns died if they could not
breastfeed because of the widespread infectious diarrhea that plagued
bottlefed infants. The advent of refrigeration and changes in the
protein of formulas cut mortality rates, but many premature babies
could not tolerate the cow-milk formulas.
It was not until the late 1940s that scientists began to study
the factors and components in milk and determine the best course
for small or sick newborns.
Scientists found that full-term infants who were fed high-protein
formulas gained weight faster than those fed low-protein formulas.
However, careful studies showed that although these infants grew
faster, they were more lethargic and had certain abnormal blood
values and higher mortality rates than the group fed lowprotein
formulas. Although protein is an essential nutrient, too much can
be harmful.
Human milk has a lower protein content than other mammalian milk.
Cow milk, for example, contains three times as much protein as human
milk. Since the liver and kidneys of premature infants are not fully
developed, they cannot adequately excrete the breakdown products
of protein.
The result is that acid and ammonia accumulate in the blood and,
if not corrected, may lead to poor organ function and damage to
developing brain cells.
Pharmaceutical companies have done a good job of producing special
formulas for premature infants. While these products have improved
the protein content, they still don’t mimic unique factors
of human milk such as infection-fighting antibodies, hormones, growth
factors, enzymes and essential fats that are particularly important
for small premature infants.
In our intensive-care nurseries, all premature infants who weigh
less than 2 pounds at birth are recommended to receive human milk.
For those children whose mothers cannot collect their own breast
milk, human milk is available through the Mother’s Milk Bank
of Ohio, in Franklin County.
Not only does human milk give these children extra safety factors,
it reduces the risk of serious infections.
These sophisticated medical advances, together with the increased
availability of human milk, give lowbirth-weight infants an excellent
chance to grow and survive.
Dr. Grant Morrow is medical director of the Columbus Children’s
Research Institute at Children’s Hospital. morrowg@pediatrics.ohio-state.edu
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/science/science.php?story=dispatch/2006/03/28/20060328-C5-01.html
|
