Enriching breast milk with nutrients may not help premature babies grow any faster after they leave the hospital, finds a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers in Denmark performed a year-long study on 320 infants who had been born prematurely. Of these, 207 were breastfed, with half being assigned to use fortified breast milk while the rest continued with normal breast milk. The remaining infants were given a special fortified bottle formula.
Although very premature babies who are tube fed in hospitals are usually given fortified breast milk to help them grow, the researchers did not find that the nutrients made any difference to growth once the babies were discharged.
The infants who were bottle-fed with an enriched formula were somewhat larger and longer by the age of 12 months, but still within the normal range. There was no significant difference in size between the two breastfed cohorts.
Researchers hypothesize that a larger dose of protein supplement might work better, or that the nutrients could have more of an effect on preemies who are still undersized for their age.
"But this has to be investigated in another study," concludes lead researcher Dr. Gitte Zachariassen.