Neonatal intensive care units make sure that premature infants are able to obtain adequate growth to ensure better health and developmental outcomes. With this vision in mind, researchers from the Children's Nutrition Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Children's Hospital have to come up with a method that improves premature infant growth by making use of an additional cream supplement that is incorporated in their diets.
Dr. Amy Hair, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine, and neonatologist at the Texas Children's Hospital said that, "For premature babies who wait less than 1000 grams, one of the problems is that their lungs and other organs are still developing when they are born. If the infant gains weight and increases in length at a good rate while in that and ICU, this helps improve their outcomes."
Based on previous research, and exclusive diet comprised of breast milk, donor human milk, or a fortifier formula that consists of minerals and protein from the donor milk protects the premature infants' intestines and supports their growth. With this current study, the researchers have found a means of optimizing growth in infants with additional caloric needs. For those who are already receiving the fortifier formula, an alternative way to help them grow is to give them fat. Incidentally, milk fat is one of the byproducts of pasteurized donor milk, or what is also known as a cream supplement. Dr. Hair says that, "this is a natural way to give them fat. Previously, we would add oils or infant formula to help premature babies grow, but we can now use a natural source from donor milk." The concept of adding this supplement into the infant's diet is also helpful since giving them more milk is not an option because their stomachs will only be able to tolerate a small amount with each feeding, "you cannot give them more volumes of milk. Especially if they have long problems, they have to have a certain volume of milk. This is a way to add calories but not change the volume of milk."
