Give breastmilk for healthier, smarter preterm babies
Another round of applause to nature’s best food for babies!
We’ve long known that breastmilk is good for babies… At least it’s proven in full-term babies. Now, research shows even pre-term babies get the benefits.
Extremely low birth weight premature infants who received breast milk shortly after birth, while still in intensive care units, had greater mental development scores at 30 months than did infants who were not fed breast milk.
Children who had been given breast milk also showed greater ability to control and appropriately respond to emotions and were also less likely to have been readmitted to the hospital after their discharge and before 30 months.
So it does seem that breastmilk boosts an premature infant’s mental and emotional health, as well as increase immunity against respiratory infections.
Yey for breastmilk!
If you want to know more about breastfeeding, Angela at Breastfeeding 1-2-3 has loads of information, tips and support.
[source: NIH News Breast Milk Associated With Greater Mental Development in Preterm Infants, Fewer Re-hospitalizations]
Tags: infant, health, breastfeeding, research, premature, IQ, mental development, hospital
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POSTED IN: Healthy Development, Infant Care, Safety and Health, Mental Health, News, Research and Breakthroughs
2 opinions for Give breastmilk for healthier, smarter preterm babies
VDog
Oct 6, 2007 at 11:52 pm
My preemie got loads of my breast milk! Yay for us! We even refused the human milk fortifier they wanted to add, since it made him sick, and he was not a low birth weight preemie.
It is so frustrating for me to hear, “oh, I couldn’t breastfeed because my baby was a preemie.” Preemies are the ones that need the boob juice the most! Granted, if you have a traumatic birth, maybe your milk won’t come in or something, but pumping worked for me and the majority of the other moms in our NICU.
Perhaps pumping and breast milk benefits education are what is needed??
Grace
Oct 12, 2007 at 10:34 am
Vdog, learning how to pump breastmilk is difficult especially for new moms, but it can be done with patience and practice. You’re right, premies need all the help and boost we can give them, especially at the very beginning of life. The bonding between mom and baby, that comes with breastfeeding, helps them recover and grow quicker. Yeah, we just need to get the word out about the benefits of breastfeeding.
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