Journal Article

Availability of donor milk improves enteral feeding but has limited effect on body growth of infants with very‐low birthweight: Data from a historic cohort study

Luo, Ping, Zhou, Ping, Chen, You, Jiang, Yan‐Nan, Wu, Tong, Jiang, Ping‐Ping, Liu, Xudong, Ma, Liya

2022

Overview

Compare with preterm formula, donor human milk (DM) is associated with a lower risk of mortality and morbidity in preterm infants. It is thus deemed superior to preterm formula as the sole diet or supplement to own mother's milk (OMM) for preterm infants, especially for those with very low birthweight (VLBW). This historic cohort study investigated the relationship between DM availability, and enteral feeding, body growth of VLBW infants by comparing two cohorts before and after the establishment of a human milk bank. A sub‐analysis was also conducted between small‐for‐gestational‐age (SGA) and non‐SGA infants in our cohorts. Our results showed that DM availability was associated with earlier initiation and faster advancement of enteral feeding, earlier attainment of full enteral feeding, and a higher proportion of OMM in enteral feeding. DM availability was also associated with earlier regain of birthweight, but not with better body growth. SGA and non‐SGA infants responded differently to DM availability with only the non‐SGA group showing improved enteral feeding associated with DM availability. The poor growth of VLBW infants with fortified DM warrants further investigations on better fortification strategies to further improve body growth. Studies are also needed on long‐term effects of DM feeding on the development of VLBW infants. Compared with the infants before the introduction of donor human milk (DM), very low birthweight infants after that had improved enteral feeding process and had increased use of own mother's milk in this study. However, DM availability affects body growth to a limited extent, which calls for a better fortification strategy for DM‐fed infants. Key points Compared with the infants before the introduction of donor human milk (DM), very low birthweight infants after that had improved enteral feeding process, shown as earlier enteral feeding introduction, faster advancement, and earlier attainment of full enteral feeding. DM availability affects body growth to a limited extent, which calls for a better fortification strategy for DM‐fed infants. The setup of a human donor milk bank increased the use of own mother's milk for enteral feeding.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,John Wiley and Sons Inc,Wiley
• Subject: Attainment / Availability / Banking / Birth weight / body growth / Cohort analysis / Cohort Studies / Diet / donor milk / enteral feeding / Enteral nutrition / Enteral Nutrition - methods / Feeding / Gestational age / Hospitals / Human body / human milk bank / Humans / Infant / Infant Formula / Infant, Newborn / Infant, Premature / Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Infants / Long term / Low birth weight / Milk / Milk, Human / Morbidity / Mortality risk / Nutrition research / Original / Premature babies / Premature birth / preterm infant nutrition / Sepsis / very low birthweight infants