Preterm infant nutrition and growth with a human milk diet

Abstract

Human milk is the preferred enteral diet for preterm infants. It provides macronutrients, micronutrients, and bioactive factors that support physical growth and neurodevelopment. Challenges of the human milk diet include the variability in its composition and a need for fortification to mirror placental nutrient delivery and prevent extrauterine growth restriction. Various strategies exist to attain target nutrient provision and optimize growth, including leveraging new technology for point-of-care human milk analysis. When maternal milk is unavailable or in short supply, pasteurized donor human milk is the preferred alternative. Infants fed donor milk may have slower weight gain than those fed exclusively maternal milk or formula, whereas infants fed fortified maternal milk have similar weight gain to preterm formula-fed infants. Future directions include more rigorous characterization of the variation in human milk, further investigation of the clinical benefits of non-nutrient bioactive factors in milk, and novel approaches to optimize fortification.

Keywords: fortification; growth; human milk; neurodevelopment; nutrition; preterm.