Effects of Nutrients in Human Milk on the Recipient Premature Infant

As the rate of survival of premature infants isincreasing, more attention is necessarily focused onimproving the quality of survival through optimalnutritional management. The nutritional needs of the premature infant are greater than at any othertime in the life cycle. The benefits of human milk forterm infants are well known. Emerging data suggest thathuman milk may especially benefit the premature infant. The human milk-fed premature infant mayexperience improved health (such as lower rates ofinfection and necrotizing enterocolitis),gastrointestinal function, and neurodevelopment. Thesefactors may outweigh the concerns about adequategrowth, nutrient accretion, and biochemical indices ofnutritional status attributed to the lower nutrientcontent of human milk compared with preterm formula.Some of the nutritional concerns may be met by theuse of multinutrient supplements during the time infantsreceive tube-feeding, generally the time prior toattaining complete oral feeding in-hospital. The available data suggest that the quality ofsurvival of premature infants can be improved, both inthe short-term and long-term, through the feeding ofhuman milk.