Cow protein risky for premature infants
A grandmother wrote to me in despair. Her grandchild was born prematurely, and had undergone many terrible events while in the Intensive Care Nursery. The baby had developed a bowel obstruction and needed surgery to make an opening, called an ileostomy, to drain her small intestine to the outside world. This little one went on to have another bowel obstruction, and small stones started coming out of the ileostomy.
This grandmother wanted to know if there was any connection between the HMF that had been added to the breast milk pumped by the baby’s mother.
Unfortunately, there was.
Searching on PubMed, the database from the National Institutes of Health’s Library of Medicine, for the topic “milk curd obstruction” brings up studies describing the risks of HMF. HMF is actually powdered infant formula, made from cow’s milk. Cow protein sometimes clumps and and makes curds in the guts of premature infants, causing a blockage that can require surgery and can even kill.
If human milk needs to be fortified, there are two companies making fortifiers derived from thoroughly screened human milk donations. Using human milk products for premature infants is the best. Milk from these companies is screened for viruses, bacteria, and drugs of abuse.
Mothers who want to donate to either one of these companies (Prolacta.com or Medolac.com) or to a HMBANA-certified milk bank are screened by history before their milk is accepted for further screening. The investigation into the history of a would-be milk donor is as thorough as it would be for a would-be blood donor.
Human milk is best for human infants of any age or condition. Human milk from Prolacta or Medolac or a HMBANA-certified milk bank (HMBANA.org) is the safest thing you can get from another person. Organs and blood can’t be pasteurized because they would be cooked and useless; human milk can be pasteurized and still be life-saving for premature and sick infants.
Many Intensive Care Nurseries won’t use donor human milk or human milk products, claiming that it is too costly. What is the point of spending a fortune to keep a premature infant alive and then giving it food that will make it sick or kill it?
If you, or anyone you know has a baby in Intensive Care, insist on donor human milk or human milk products.
