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The Ultimate Preemie and Mom Reference Guide

2021-01-27

Links to websites that inform, inspire, support, advocate, educate and feed the soul.

There is a tremendous amount of information on the web. Trying to learn more about your preemie baby can be overwhelming, so we created this list so you don’t have to. We tried to include links to sites that we felt would benefit you and your preemie.

If you want to add to this list, please email us at info@preemiesensor.com; after all, sharing is caring, and knowledge is power!

ABOUT PREEMIES

We focused on publications that provide a section within their website dedicated to preterm babies.

Tommy’s provides excellent information on their Pregnancy Hub and Premature Birth page as well.
Little Bliss Magazine is for families of babies born premature or sick with great stories of support.
HealthyChildren.org content is developed by pediatricians and trusted by families.
Parents Magazine section on Premature Babies has timely content to keep you informed.
What To Expect offers a Premature Baby & NICU Basics Guide.
The Baby Center covers a range of topics from being a NICU parent to preemie care and development to life as a preemie parent.
NICU Parent Network a community for families with preterm infants offering support through information, stories and tools.
Preemie World Blog a platform that helps bridge the gap between medical professionals and families during their NICU journey.

FOR MOM’S

A shortlist of resources to support the mind, body and soul as you take care of your newborn preemie.

Motherly an online community that inspires and connects.
Today’s Parent provides you parenting, baby, pregnancy and family insights through real-life stories and expert advice.
Absolutely Mama designed for the modern mom who wishes to forge her own path, filled with great insights and advice on parenting, lifestyle and fashion.
Mother&Baby covers every aspect of being a mom from pregnancy to baby to toddler.
Mother Magazine is designed to provide stories, lifestyle and health information for the modern mom.
Very Well family is a catch-all site with content ranging from stories to activities to online tools covering all aspects from pregnancy to raising healthy kids of all ages and stages to the latest news.
Hand to Hold “You are not alone” This site provides a soft and gentle approach. They offer a one-on-one peer mentoring program, along with blogs, podcasts, social networks and resources for in-hospital programs for NICU families, Bereaved Families and NICU professionals.

BREASTFEEDING SUPPORT

La Leche League International is an excellent global non-profit consortium that provides you with all the information and resources you need to know about breastfeeding. You can also find local support within your area. If that is not available, check out their Facebook support group page.
Breastfeeding Support Network – UK This site not only provides valuable information and resources for breastfeeding moms, but it also includes a thorough listing of Drugs in Breastmilk Fact Sheet.
Breastfeeding.support provides articles, news, research, and breastfeeding information. It also has a map to find certified lactation consultants in your area.

HUMAN MILK BANKS

Sometimes mothers cannot provide their own milk to their newborns, and the reasons vary from not producing enough milk to physically being unable to breastfeed due to illness. Human milk banks operate to help provide the milk required to help babies grow, especially vulnerable low birth weight infants. If you have breastmilk to spare, please #donate it to your local human milk bank.

European Milk Bank Association (EMBA)
United Kingdom Association of Milk Banks (UKAMB) including links to individual milk banks within the UK
Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) including links to individual milk banks within Canada and the United States
The Human Milk Foundation (HMF) created to help families feed their babies with human milk by providing screened donor breastmilk to premature infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units within the United Kingdom. They are a non-profit supporting our most vulnerable infants with research, stories and updated news. Each donation makes a difference.

Locate your human milk bank within your country. Please note that some milk banks are located within the hospital itself.

Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

For additional information and resources on human milk, please visit PATH organisation, a global non-profit that improves public health.

ORGANISATIONS AND AGENCIES

These initiatives focus on helping communities worldwide by addressing the issues around preterm births, conducting research and providing guidelines that advocate for change. You can support these organisations through donations as well.

European Foundation for the Care of New Born Infants (EFCNI) Their Mission and vision: “We want to reduce the enormous health and social inequalities linked to preterm birth. To address these disparities and to increase the standard of newborn care, we initiated and are coordinating the European-wide project European Standards of Care for Newborn Health. You can find more information about EFCNI in our brochure For the best start in life.” You can also find Parent and Patient organisations within your own country.
The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) The purpose of this initiative “is an effort by UNICEF and the World Health Organization to ensure that all maternities, whether free standing or in a hospital, become centers of breastfeeding support.” A list of participating countries is on the BFHI Wikipedia page. For the researcher in you, check out 2018 revised and updated PDF version of The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.
NEC Society This non-profit goal is dedicated to “building a world without necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) through research, advocacy, and education. The NEC Society brings together patient-families, clinicians, and other diverse stakeholders to better understand, prevent, and treat this devastating neonatal intestinal disease.” They also offer a NEC Support Group for families and facts and educational information around necrotizing enterocolitis and what you need to know.
N3 Neonatal Nutrition Network This network comprises a “group of UK health professionals working in neonatal care who are collaborating to improve the nutrition of preterm and sick newborns.” It provides you with research that is currently being conducted, plus a Preterm Educational Resource Center for families.
Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth “The first-ever national, regional and global estimates of preterm birth. The report shows the extent to which preterm birth is on the rise in most countries, and is now the second leading cause of death globally for children under five, after pneumonia.” An updated edition was published by World Health Organisation in October 2020 for World Prematurity Day.
Preterm Birth Information for Education Professionals “These five learning resources have been developed to improve your knowledge and confidence in supporting prematurely born children in the classroom.”
Clinics in Mother and Child’s Health on Preterm Birth by Longdom Publishing contains open access research publications surrounding the topic.
The Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS) The organisation mandate is to lead “a collaborative, global effort to increase awareness and accelerate innovative research and interventions to improve maternal, newborn and child health outcomes around the world.” You can scope out the different projects they are working on and they also have a resource area for preterm and stillborn guilds for families and supporters.

An overview of the research article on ‘Human milk bank and personalized nutrition in the NICU: a narrative review’

2021-01-12

Originally published in the European Journal of Pediatrics, November 27, 2020. “This narrative review presents salient data of our current knowledge and concerns regarding milk feeding of preterm infants in the NICU, with special emphasis on personalized donor milk as a result of establishing a Personalised Nutrition Unit (PNU).” Written by Manuel Sánchez Luna, Sylvia Caballero Martin and Carmen Sánchez Gómez-de-Orgaz.

Today approximately 15 million babies are born prematurely and is ‘the leading cause of mortality among children aged under five years, with a majority of deaths due to preterm birth occurring in the neonatal period.

Nutrition is Key

To fight this problem, appropriate nutrition is a critical element in improving preterm babies’ survival and outcomes. Sometimes, instead of the mother’s own milk (MOM), donor milk (DM) from a similar gestational and lactation stage is given. This milk, provided by human milk banks (HMB), is composed of pooled term milk at various lactation stages. In some instances, they are far from having the characteristics of the MOM. In these circumstances, personalised fortification using DM is the ideal approach to feed preterm infants.

Preterm Milk Composition

A contributing factor for growth failure in preterm infants is low protein intake. Studies have shown that the mother’s milk of premature infants has significantly more protein, nitrogen, and amino acids during the first weeks of lactation. This unique combination of nutrients of the preterm milk properties contributes to the premature infants’ rapid growth rates. Also unique to breastmilk are human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), which are known to be a strong protection for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). It is essential to state that the breastmilk’s pasteurization does not affect HMO content and that no differences were found between unpasteurized and pasteurized human milk for any or severe NEC.

Personalised Fortification

Currently, 20% of donated breastmilk comes from mothers of preterm infants. In Brazil, a leader of human milk banks, 44% of their donors are mothers of preterm infants, and if the mother’s milk nutritional requirements are not met, then donor milk is often given to babies. In both cases, MOM or DM, personalised fortification is performed inside NICUs. A significant reduction in NEC and late-onset sepsis was correlated with the usage of personalized fortification. Due to the personalized fortification, a shorter use of central venous catheters for parenteral nutrition, which is the administering of nutrition intravenously and better growth during hospitalization was also associated with this.

Conclusion

Mother’s own milk is the healthiest and most convenient way of providing the essential nutrients to newborns. If the mother cannot provide her breastmilk, donor milk is a good alternative. On the other side, and as the milk composition varies with gestational age and stage of lactation, personalised feeding using donor milk from mothers with preterm infants, combined with personalised targeted fortification, is the optimal approach.

We would like to thank Dr. Manuel Sánchez Luna, Professor Neonatology Division Hospital Materno Infantil Universitario Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, España for his continued research on personalized donor milk working towards the establishment of in the development of a personalized nutrition unit within hospitals in Spain. You can follow Dr. Luna on Twitter @manutoronto13

Introducing our Preemie Feeding Tracker and Preemie Fortification software for Neonatal Intensive Care Units

2020-12-01

The combination of these two software works in conjunction with the Preemie sensor, allowing neonatologists and nurses to: test milk composition, freshness, and safety; automatically suggest the fortification needed for each preterm infant; store and keep track of key data about infants’ nutrition and growth; track and manage each infant’s feeding and correlate it with the infant’s growth; prescribe the next fortification needed.

Collects and stores the results of each milk analysis, with the following parameters being measured:

Composition: Total Protein, Total Lipids, Lactose, Total Human Milk Oligosaccharides, Energy

Freshness (based on bacteria count)

Safety (based on somatic cell count)

Automatically calculates the suggested targeted fortification and enables a digital prescription of the fortification on a daily basis;
Customization of fortification guidelines, fortifiers used, and introduction to fortification;
Stores data about infant feeding (prescription and actual intake) and growth, in compliance with GDPR;
Comprehensive management of each infant’s nutritional intake and growth over time, allowing the user to correlate actual intake and growth indicators, and to get insights into the evolution of the infant’s health status;
Produce, save, and export reports on infants’ nutrition and growth.

How Our Preemie Preterm Feeding Management System Works

To learn more about what Preemie can do to help vulnerable infants get a healthy start in life, please contact us to arrange a demo or to use our Preemie sensor and software in your research.

Preemie Systems Speaking and Sponsoring at the HCSA Conference 2020

2020-11-16

Preemie systems is pleased to announce that it will be the part of this year’s HCSA Conference – Past, Present and Future, as a sponsor and speaker.

This year’s virtual conference and exhibition of The HCSA Annual Conference & Exhibition (HCSA Reunite 2020), will occur on the 17th and 18th of November. This event holds a special place within the community of clinicians and other key stakeholders of NHS procurement, highlighting the need to improve, adopting common standards, introducing key performance indicators, implementing better information systems and innovation. It’s also an opportunity for future connections, enhancement of professional networks and engagement possibilities.

Preemie’s Systems CEO Isabel Correa (Hoffmann), is honoured to speak and present on day two ‘The Preemie System: Connectivity, Traceability and Transparency in the Routine Analysis of Human Milk Composition’.

The Preemie system, which personalises the concept of target fortification using our award-winning Preemie sensor (a portable and affordable NIR sensor specifically calibrated for human milk), is thrilled to be part of this event.

Visit our Booth!

Preemie System Wins German Design Award for its Preemie Sensor in the Category of Medical, Rehabilitation and Health Care

2020-11-13

Preemie sensor is a small, portable device created for neonatologists, nurses, and human milk bank professionals to analyse milk for its nutritional value, spoilage, and safety.

November 13, 2020 – London, England | The German Design Award is one of the most prestigious awards on the European and international scene in the design sector. Only the best products and innovative projects are awarded, after a selection by a commission of renowned experts, who are members of the German Design Council. We are proud to announce that our Preemie sensor is a recipient of this prestigious award in the category of Medical, Rehabilitation and Healthcare.

We believe that participation in this competition, which over the years has become a showcase for the best international projects, provides a global platform that strategically positions the Preemie System with respect to the design of the products it develops.

“Winning this prestigious award is a great honour for our team,” says Isabel Correa, CEO and Founder of Tellspec LTD, the company that is developing the Preemie System, “It confirms our company’s ability to innovate across the board in all aspects of product development, including design. The German Design Award also allows our Preemie sensor to be present in the different European and International communication channels, further amplifying the scope of our mission of helping preterm infants get a healthy start in life”.

The design of the Preemie sensor was developed to reflect the brand, and took into account operational functionality, portability, weight, and ergonomics, with the aim of simplifying our users’ understanding of how to use the device. This design flow is reflected in the user interface of our Preemie software ecosystem:

The Preemie Fortification software for Neonatal Intensive Care Units, to test milk composition, freshness, and safety, and to store and keep track of key data about infants’ nutrition and growth;
The Preemie Feeding Tracker software, designed for neonatologists to track and manage each infant’s nutritional intake, correlate it with the infant’s growth, and to prescribe the fortification needed;
The Preemie Milk Quality software, designed to allow personnel at Human Milk Banks to test milk composition, freshness, and safety, to store all the key data about donor milk, and to automatically print information labels for donor milk.
The Preemie Milk Tracker software, designed for Human Milk Banks, to track information about the origin and journey of donor milk, and to tailor the milk pooling process.

A great deal of work has been done on the language of the device and on the semantic design aspects, so as to convey the perception of a smart and easy-to-use product. The Preemie sensor, soft in colour compared to other medical devices, at the same time is portable and durable. Our goal was to create a product design which stands out amongst commonly used medical devices within the marketplace, for its user-friendly design, thus making it disruptive and innovative.

THE COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS OF BREAST MILK: Past, Present, and Future

2020-10-28

From ancient times to the present day, the sharing of breast milk has had an interesting history from myth to misconception to a revolution of support by global agencies such as the World Health Organisation and UNICEF. This month’s blog touches upon the history of breast milk collection and analysis past, present, and future.

PAST

In ancient times, the ‘collection’ of human milk was simply nursing of the infant by family members, friends, or even strangers. The earliest recorded account was around 1800 BC during the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi. Between 100 and 400AD, an analysis of determining the milk’s quality and consistency was done using the fingernail test by placing a drop of breast milk on the nail. If the milk ran when the finger moved – too watery. If when the fingernail was turned downward, and the milk clung to the nail – too thick.

“It takes a village to raise a child” – African proverb.

The wet nurse’s evolution went from a community of family members and friends helping one another to women who served the wealthy. In fact, a wet nurse was a reputable, well-paying profession that earned more than a general labourer during the Victoria era.

As the popularity of wet nursing declined by the mid-19th century with human milk being replaced by alternative animal milk sources, a physician named Theodor Escherich led the way in pediatric infectious disease research. He discovered that breastfed babies’ intestinal bacteria greatly contrasted with infants fed with an animal milk alternative. Under the tutelage of Escheric, who in 1902 became the Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Vienna and Director of the St. Anna Children’s Hospital in Vienna, Vienna opened up the very first human milk bank in 1909. Human milk was pooled and pasteurized before distribution as milk analysers weren’t invented until the 1980s for the dairy industry, with human milk analysers to follow years later.

PRESENT

Today, there are hundreds of human milk banks worldwide of individual milk banks overseen by various national associations such as the European Milk Bank Association, Human Milk Banking Association of North America and the Rede Brasileira de Bancos de Leite Humano in Brazil. Women generously donate their breast milk to help the most vulnerable low-birth-weight infants in hospitals’ Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

Human milk banks are the gateway to supplying breast milk to hospitals. Their service is essential as they are “responsible for recruiting breast milk donors, collecting donated milk, and then processing, screening, storing, and distributing the milk to meet infants’ specific needs for optimal health.” (PATH report on Strengthening Human Milk Banking – A Global Implementation Framework). At times, the screening process may also include the use of a human milk analyser to measure the macronutrient content in breast milk, like fat, protein, and energy. This additional information assists NICU doctors to decide the type and amount of fortification required to supplement the breast milk given to meet each preterm infant’s needs.

Early in the development of our Preemie system, we interviewed several milk bank managers and neonatologists to get a better understanding of their needs for human milk analysis. It was important for us to develop an end-to-end solution for precise human milk analysis that met their needs. From these interviews we heard the following comments:

“It would be amazing to have software that could do the fortification calculations.”

“We need software that can track the nutritional intake and correlate it to the infant’s growth.”

“It would be great to have a smaller device that rapidly and easily tests the donor milk composition”

“We want to use as little milk as possible while performing the composition analysis.”

“We need to automate the process of fortification, and discard manual calculations;

“We need an affordable device that can test the milk freshness so we know if we should use the milk for infant feeding.”

“I need a simple and easy-to-use device that can test the milk composition but that doesn’t require recurrent calibrations.”

“It would be great if after testing the donor’s milk we could print a nutritional label with that information.”

“Would be great if we could test several donor milks and have the software tell us what milk should be pooled together so as to optimize the pooled milk with the highest possible nutritional quality.”

FUTURE

Based on the feedback, we are currently developing our Preemie System that can meet the requirements and needs of NICUs and of HMBs. You spoke and we listened!

Preemie Systems Joins the 2nd International Donor Milk Research Congress

2020-09-30

Preemie systems is pleased to announce that it will be the main sponsor and speaker at this year’s 2nd International Donor Milk Research Congress.

The European Milk Bank Association (EMBA) virtual research meeting will take place on October 2nd, 2020 and will focus on “Human Milk Donation and Breastfeeding in the COVID-19 Era”.

The European Milk Bank Association (EMBA) gathers over 200 milk banks operating in more than 20 countries throughout Europe. This congress will reunite the most reputable researchers from all over the world, and is one of the most exclusive events in the field.

Preemie’s Systems CEO Isabel Correa (Hoffmann), is honoured to be presenting ‘The Preemie System: Connectivity, Traceability and Transparency in the Routine Analysis of Human Milk Composition’, at EMBA’s prestigious event.

The Preemie system, which improves the concept of target fortification introducing a portable and affordable NIR sensor specifically calibrated for human milk, is glad to be part of this event.

Are you a human milk bank? Take a couple of seconds to learn more about the #HumanMilk4Life campaign or to participate, please visit our webpage.

ABOUT PREEMIE SYSTEMS
The Preemie Systems is the first end-to-end solution to individualised, targeted milk fortification by taking into account the unique chemistry of human milk in a rapid, reliable, cost-effective, and portable sensor with state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and dedicated software for analysing, fortifying, tracking, and reporting information about infant growth and its correlation to the milk fortification given. The Preemie System offers a digital, transparent, and comprehensive solution for all Neonatal Intensive Care Units and human milk banks.

Launch of the #HumanMilk4Life Campaign

2020-09-22

Celebrating the extraordinary power of human milk and the role that human milk banks have within their communities by sharing their stories, raising awareness, and educating women on the value of human milk donations.

September 22, 2020 – London, England | Today, Preemie Systems launches the #HumanMilk4Life digital campaign to raise awareness of the importance of human milk, its life-saving properties, and the need for women to donate their breast milk to help vulnerable low-birth-weight infants.

We believe that sharing these informative ads, offered at no cost to the human milk banks (HMBs), is essential as we wish to:

Raise awareness of local human milk banks and their services
Raise breastfeeding awareness and the importance of mothers donating their milk
Highlight the collaboration between the human milk banks and the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU)
Emphasize the importance of the life-giving nutritional and biological properties of human milk

The #HumanMilk4Life social media posts are designed to engage the target audience with information about HMB services and the need for human milk donations. Each post will connect social audiences to their local human milk bank, hospitals, and associations with links to their website and tags to their social media platforms. Advertisements will be placed on Facebook and Instagram with accompanying posts on Twitter and LinkedIn.

“We are pleased to announce that Italy will be the launch-pad for the Preemie Systems #HumanMilk4Life campaign,” remarked Professor Guido E. Moro, President of the Italian Association of Donated Human Milk Banks (Associazione Italiana delle Banche del Latte Umano Donato, (AIBLUD). “This campaign will help raise awareness of the need for human milk donations within our communities and help mothers and their preterm babies.”

The #HumanMilk4Life campaign will start in Italy and flow to other selected human milk banks throughout Europe.

“Breast milk is valuable, especially for vulnerable preterm infants concerning their short and long-term health, and the mother’s milk may not be available, especially in the first period after delivery.” remarked Professor Enrico Bertino, President of the European Milk Bank Association (EMBA) and Professor of Pediatrics, Director of the Neonatology Department at the University of Turin (AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza “Donated human milk is essential because it represents the most valid alternative to breast milk and is the first choice when breast milk is not available. For premature babies, it can be considered as a life-saving drug.”

Although breast milk is the optimal choice for preterm infants, sometimes the mother is unable to provide the amount required to feed her baby. This is when donors’ milk is needed and where milk banks help, facilitating the process of collecting and distributing human milk to their associated hospitals.

Breast milk is not just nourishment for vulnerable infants, but a vital gift that helps them grow up healthy!

The main benefits for premature infants who receive donated human milk instead of formula are improved food tolerance, faster achievement of full enteral feeding, improved bowel growth and maturation, decreased risk of enterocolitis necrotizing, bronchodysplasia and retinopathy of the premature baby and better neurodevelopment, as indicated in the recent AIBLUD and EMBA recommendations.

To learn more about the #HumanMilk4Life campaign or to participate, please visit our webpage.

ABOUT PREEMIE SYSTEMS
The Preemie Systems is the first end-to-end solution to individualised, targeted milk fortification by taking into account the unique chemistry of human milk in a rapid, reliable, cost-effective, and portable sensor with state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and dedicated software for analysing, fortifying, tracking, and reporting information about infant growth and its correlation to the milk fortification given. The Preemie System offers a digital, transparent, and comprehensive solution for all Neonatal Intensive Care Units and human milk banks.

Cutting the Risks of Premature Birth

2020-08-03

Around half a million babies are born prematurely each year in Europe and that number is increasing.

Where premature birth can’t be prevented, it’s vital that preemies receive adequate nutrition to help prevent health problems. Babies born early often don’t get all the nutrients they need from breast milk alone as it provides less protein, fat, and carbohydrates than they would get through the placenta if they were still in the womb.

‘When we have a very premature baby, nutrition (from breast milk) is not enough so it has to be fortified,’

said Isabel Correa, founder and CEO of a company called Preemie based in London, UK.

Currently, preterm infants are often given breast milk with standard fortification in hospital neonatal units. Doctors typically give babies urine tests to gauge if the supplementation is suitable. But since it isn’t tailored to individual needs or to the specific human milk used, there is a risk of under- or over-fortifying the milk, which could have side effects including renal failure or predisposing the child to obesity.

Correa and her colleagues are developing a system to test the nutritional content of the mother’s milk in a few seconds and calculate the fortification required based on a baby’s needs. It can measure how much protein, fat, lactose, and oligosaccharides – complex sugars – are found in breast milk – as well as freshness, or the age of the milk in days.

“We are working towards enabling neonatal ICU (intensive care unit) professionals to perform a quick and reliable analysis of a small amount of breast milk, thus providing better individualised fortification for preterm babies,”

said Professor Enrico Bertino, a professor and director of the Neonatal Care Unit at the University of Turin in Italy, who is involved with a study of the Preemie device.

To read the full article, visit: https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/cutting-risks-premature-birth.html

Helping Preterm Babies Get a Healthy Start In Life

2020-07-28

Ensuring that each preterm infant receives optimal nutrition by supplementing the mother’s milk through personalised, targeted fortification designed to meet the infant’s unique nutritional needs.

The Preemie team spoke with Leilani Kupahu-Marino, a Registered Nurse who works at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Tripler Army Medical Center, in Hawaii, USA, to get her perspective on the journey that families face when their baby is born early and the challenges they have. Here is what she said:

“So, let’s start from the beginning. Mother is expecting to deliver this baby full-term, suddenly something happens, and Mother is brought into Emergency for either a C-Section or delivery. In those moments, everything is exploding in their world. Their life has changed from ‘Excitement’ to trauma as all of a sudden the baby is whisked away to the Neonatal Unit (NICU). Mother has not touched the baby and depending upon how preterm baby is, it may be several days before Mum has an opportunity to even see baby.

Our focus during this time is to stabilise the baby and ensure that Mum is well looked after.

As soon as possible, we collect the Mother’s milk, and when the Doctor says it’s OK to start feeding the baby, then we would give those few drops to the baby. Once the baby is stabilised we then look at fortifying the breast milk.

In my 25 plus years of being in the NICU, I’ve seen this same process: the NICU doctor uses a standard mathematical calculation for calories based on changes within a 24 hour period, and this is what the baby will receive in the volume of the Mother’s milk, including fortification. Maybe the baby is 5 to 7 days out in the NICU, and the baby is not gaining, so let’s give them a 24-Kcal.

OK, then maybe it’s a week, 2-weeks and baby is gaining weight, things are getting better, let’s go down to from 24 to 22 Kcal and if still doing well working towards straight mother’s breast milk. It really comes down to that math calculation of what baby needs in Kcals. Still, it is not taking into consideration the macronutrients of the mother’s breast milk that they are getting, and that is why Preemie is phenomenal!

The soul of that little baby… and each one is different, and we need to look at them as individuals. So yes, the mathematical calculations for fortification work today. However, it doesn’t always provide the proper amount of nutrients needed to individualise the amount for fortification. And, if miscalculated, the baby’s abdomen can become distended as they may not tolerate the amount of fortification given.

To me, Preemie system now gives doctors specific information regarding the macronutrient content within the breast milk, they will also have the option to add other nutrients along with the fortifier such as probiotics. All of this becomes more specific to that particular baby meeting their own personal and individual requirements.

Who knows, maybe we will be able to monitor their intake in such a way that that could affect the long term health of that particular child and decrease interventions and decrease the obesity that happens and other issues that occur in adolescence and into young adulthood.”

#Pretermnutrition #preterm #preemie #preemiesensor #NICU #healthybaby

Interested in learning more about our Preemie sensor or wish to collaborate with us? Please contact us for more information.