Neokare 2.0 – Conventional human milk fortification

To achieve the optimal growth of premature babies, a doctor or dietician may decide  to supplement the mother’s milk with a nutritional concentrate, a fortifier.

These products add enough protein, carbohydrates, fats, salts and vitamins to the human milk to meet the baby’s needs. Such fortifiers have been in use for over 30 years. While they are generally believed to be safe, some pediatricians,  neonatologists, and  dietitians have serious reservations about them. In the USA there is an ongoing mass action lawsuit where parents claim that their preterm babies developed a life threatening complication, necrotising enterocolitis, as a result of conventional fortifier use.

Let’s start with the name. You will see these products labelled as ‘human milk fortifiers’. This sounds reassuring and wholesome, but in reality, the only thing that is human about these products is the milk they are added to. Their protein content comes from cows’ milk known to cause allergic reactions in 5-7% of babies. Fats present in these fortifiers are derived from vegetable and seed oils, while the added fish oil is another source of allergic reactions. Finally, much of the carbohydrate component is industrially produced maltodextrin. If an adult would be eating such a mixture it would be regarded as ultraprocessed food.

Have a look at the content of some of these products