Fortifying milk for premature babies

DD is currently in NICU after being born at 25 wks + 6 days.

At the moment she is receiving my breast milk but only very small amounts until she is able to tolerate more. I plan to continue expressing for her needs and working towards a long-term breastfeeding relationship.

The staff have mentioned to me briefly that often they will add a calorie or 'fortify' EBM once babies are tolerating more milk, basically to help them gain weight as I understand. This hasn't happened yet for DD but I know the time will come when they want to do this. I'd like to be a bit more informed however. I haven't had a lot of time to research any of this further, but I'm keen to know more about what these fortifiers are, and any potential risks involved. To my knowledge they are a product derived from cows-milk? Very briefly some of the research around speculates as to whether these products can reduce the antibacterial properties of breast milk.

Obviously I want DD to gain weight but I'm just a bit wary of what some of these products actually are and I generally don't just blindly smile & nod....I want to know as much as I can to make an informed choice about DD's care. If anyone can point me to some more literature or share their experiences that would be really helpful.

I've PMed you hun :-)

Can't give you any info in relation to research stats but I can tell you that DS was on 80Kcal for the majority of his stay. Had good steady weekly weight gains which was very important in his case. At discharge he weighed 3.5kgs.

The only problem I had was once he was home and on full bfeeds, he gained very little weight over a 6 week period and I'm sure he was craving 80Kcal :(

Thanks Leesa & Rosebud. Leesa - that link was really helpful.

Just bumping to see if anyone else had any thoughts or experiences.

I'm glad it was useful :-)

I guess from my own experience I was pretty ignorant and didn't question them fortifying DD's EBM. To me I just thought if it 'fattens her up' then go for it.

I really commend you for researching it hun. Have you asked the Paed on one of their morning visits?