Formula-fed preemies at higher risk for dangerous GI condition
May 1st, 2011 - 5:26 pm ICT by ANIWashington, May 1 (ANI): A new study has found that premature babies fed with a standard premature infant formula derived from cow’s milk are at a greater risk of developing the dangerous intestinal condition necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) than babies who get human donor milk.
Investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and elsewhere found that only one of the 29 infants who received human milk developed NEC and it recovered without surgery, compared with five out of the 24 babies on formula, four of whom required surgery.
The findings justify a move toward a ‘human milk only’ diet in extremely premature babies - those born weighing less than 1,500 gm, or 3.3 pounds.
“The stark differences in the risk of NEC, its complications and the need for surgery between babies who receive human donor milk and those who get formula signal the need for a change in feeding practices across neonatal intensive care units,” said lead investigator Elizabeth Cristofalo, a neonatologist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
Moreover, babies who got human milk tolerated feeding better, allowing them to be taken off supplemental IV nutrition much sooner — after 27 days on average — than the group who received cow’s milk formula.
Those babies spent an average of 36 days on IV nutrition, largely because their intestinal tracts were not adapting to food as well, said the researchers.
The findings were presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Denver. (ANI)
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