Role of human milk fortifier on weight gain in very low birth weight babies

Abstract

Background: Poor weight gain and postnatal growth of VLBW neonates continues to be a major problem. Breast feeding with HMF fortification show positive effect on growth. Main objective is to study the weight gain pattern in very low birth weight babies supplemented with HMF.Methods: This is an observational study conducted in NICU, Department of Pediatrics, U.P. Rural Institute of Medical Sciences and research Saifai, India between January 2015- June 2016 for assessing the weight gain pattern in VLBW neonates supplemented with HMF.Results: Maximum number of babies supplemented with HMF achieved the targeted weight in 8-14 days (32.2%) followed by those who attained this weight within 15-21 days (30%), 22-28 days (21.1%), <7 days (13.3%) and >28 days (3.3%) respectively. Mean time taken to achieve the targeted weight was 16.69±7.19 days.Conclusions: We concluded that the supplementation with HMF, can result in a significant increase in growth. We demonstrated that fortification of human milk, with HMF did not cause any measured adverse effects in VLBW neonates.