[Morbidity reduction in preterm newborns fed with milk of their own mothers].

Abstract

In order to study the effect of feeding on the morbidity, 118 premature newborn, were followed on successive basis; 59 fed with infant term formula (F) and 59 fed with own mother's milk (LH). The patients were classified in 3 groups according to birth weight: I, < 999 g (n = 4/4); II, 1000-1499 g (n = 37/37) and III, 1500-1999 g (n = 18/18), each group F and LH having equal numbers. Growth, morbidity and clinical management were recorded. Necrotizing enterocolitis (P < 0.001), urinary tract infection (P < 0.01) and infectious diarrhea (P < 0.01) were less frequent in LH infants and as a consequence these infants needed less antimicrobial therapy (P < 0.001), nevertheless the human milk contained flora bacteria. The LH infants of group II need fewer red cell transfusions (P < 0.001) and each group was similar and only the babies < 999 g had increments of approximately 15 g/kg/day. This study highlights the importance of feeding the premature infant with own mother's milk; however, the infant growth increments were less than the expected suggesting that human milk must be fortified with proteins and minerals, considering the mothers as a true human milk bank.