To determine eligibility infants had to weigh less than 1500 grams. They were found ineligible if they were diagnosed with chromosome or cognitive abnormalities. Infants were selected from 4 NICU’s (Neonatal Intensive Care Units) in Ontario Canada. 363 Infants were randomly sorted by a computer into 2 groups that was composed of 181 infants to donor milk and 182 infants to preterm formula. The families and members of the research and clinical team as well as the assessors of neurodevelopment were blind to the infant feeding group method. Only the dietician and diet techs who prepared the milk were aware of the group selection. This was done to minimize bias. The families were called monthly and agreed for a follow up neurodevelopment assessment at 18months age. The Bayley III was used to assess cognitive, language, and motor development of infants from 1-42 months of age. (Parson 2008). The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, (Bayley-III) is an individually administered scale that assesses five categories in children between 1-42 months of age: cognition, language (receptive and expressive communication), motor (gross and fine), social-emotional and adaptive behavior. The first three are assessed through direct observation of the child in test situations, while the …show more content…
I am interested to see the results of the follow up assessment that they plan on doing at age 5 with the children. I also feel like they could have used more than one assessment tool to measure neurodevelopment in the infants. This study did show however that donor milk was associated with far less cases of necrotizing enterocolitis than formula fed infants. Necrotizing enterocolitis is one of the most serious complications with a 30% to 40% mortality rate in premature babies because their underdeveloped intestines. It can be caused by overgrowth of bacteria, or a decrease oxygen supply to the intestines at birth. Mothers’ milk is the best prevention because it contains Lactoferrin and other proteins that kill harmful bacteria that may be present in premature infants. Lactoferrin is a strong iron binding protein and since most bacteria need iron to live when Lactoferrin is present bacteria are deprived which slows down growth. Previous studies I have read saw a correlation between Lactoferrin supplementation and the acceleration of development of Payer’s patches in the small intestine. Payer’s Patches are lymphoid tissue that helps fight against infection by housing macrophages, T and B cells that monitor and destroy antigens. Mothers of premature infants sometimes have deficient milk production because of high levels of