NeoKare informational page dedicated to parents and carers’
NeoKare will try to explain the complex science involved in nurturing preterm babies on a way that it is understandable to everyone.
Challenges facing preterm babies
By the end of the first trimester, a baby’s organs are fully formed, but they need to grow significantly between the 22nd and 38th week of pregnancy, increasing from just over a pound to over 6 pounds. This growth is supported by the placenta transferring nutrients from the mother’s blood. Premature babies, especially those born before 32 weeks, face challenges in achieving similar growth due to underdeveloped stomachs and guts, which hampers their ability to digest and absorb nutrients efficiently. While human milk is the best nutrition for premature babies, it may not provide all necessary nutrients for their rapid development. NeoKare’s mission is to help premature babies overcome these challenges and live healthy lives by producing nutritional products from 100% UK donated human milk.
Conventional human milk fortification
To promote optimal growth in premature babies, doctors may supplement mother’s milk with nutritional fortifiers. These add proteins, carbohydrates, fats, salts, and vitamins to meet the baby’s needs and have been used for over 30 years. However, some medical professionals have concerns about their safety, and there is an ongoing lawsuit in the USA alleging that fortifiers caused necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants. Despite being labeled ‘human milk fortifiers,’ these products often contain cow’s milk proteins, vegetable and seed oils, fish oil, and industrially produced maltodextrin, making them potentially allergenic and ultra-processed.
Human milk, more than just food
At NeoKare, we recognize that human milk contains much more than calories, proteins, sugars, and fats. It includes over 1,000 unique protein components, with about 30% being exclusive to humans, playing crucial roles in preventing infections and inhibiting harmful gut microbes. Unlike cow’s milk-based products, human milk’s proteins can neutralize harmful bacteria and viruses, protecting premature babies from infections. Additionally, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in human milk bind to bacteria and viruses, preventing infections. Human milk also contains growth factors vital for the development of a baby’s gut, brain, and other organs, which animal-based protein sources cannot provide.
Understanding NeoKare’s products
NeoKare produces two categories of products based on 100% UK donated human milk. We process and package these in our state of the art facilities in Redditch, UK. During processing there is nothing added to the human milk. No preservatives, no vegetable or seed oils, no industrially produced food components. Just 100% human milk.
When a baby is born prematurely, in an ideal world their feeding should achieve a similar growth. However, especially in babies born before 32 weeks, this is a challenging aim.
By the end of the first trimester a baby’s organs are fully formed. Everything is there, their little hands, fingers, the heart, lungs, kidneys and so on. What needs to happen though, is that these tiny organs need grow – and grow a lot. Between the 22nd and the 38th week of the pregnancy the baby will grow more than 5-fold, from being just over a pound (500 grams) to a full-size newborn of over 6 pounds. This remarkable development is supported by the placenta transfering the necessary nutrients from the mother’s blood.
When a baby is born prematurely, in an ideal world their feeding should achieve a similar growth. However, especially in babies born before 32 weeks, this is a challenging aim. The first problem is: the stomach and gut of these tiny babies is not fully developed, so they cannot digest and absorb nutrients very efficiently yet. The second: while the mother’s own milk is by far the best nutrition premature babies can receive, consuming human milk alone may not provide all the nutrients necessary for the rapid development of these vulnerable little infants.
Our mission at NeoKare is to help premature babies to overcome these hurdles and live full, healthy lives. We do so by producing nutritional products based on 100% UK donated human milk.
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 ultra-processed food.
We at NeoKare follow the science that shows that human milk is a lot more than simply calories, proteins, sugars, and fats.
This wonder of nature contains over 1000 different protein components. About 30% of these are unique to us humans, they simply do not exist in animals. Many of these proteins play a strong role in preventing infections and stopping the growth of dangerous microbes in the gut of your baby. Some of these proteins kill live bacteria outright, others make them harmless through multiple other mechanisms. A cow milk-based formula or fortifier will not have the same protective properties, making premature babies susceptible to potentially fatal infections.
The third most abundant component of human milk is what scientists call human milk oligosaccharides, HMOs. If you have not heard about these it is not surprising, many healthcare professional do not know what they are. Some of these proteins kill live bacteria outright, others make them harmless through multiple other mechanisms. As their name suggests, HMOs are not produced by animals. As a result, preterm babies fed on cow milk bases fortifiers remain more vulnerable.
Crucially, many proteins in human milk are growth factors. These unique proteins, instead of being digested for food, will help your baby’s gut and other organs, including areas of the human brain, to grow and develop. Again, your baby cannot get such uniquely human growth factors from animal protein sources.
Understanding NeoKare’s products
We want to be up-front with you here. As some of you may remember, in 2022 NeoKare was in the news for all the wrong reasons. One of our product was found to contain some contamination with the heavy metal, lead. After a comprehensive product recall, we traced back to problem to a faulty equipment, and the unexpectedly high lead levels in some areas of the country. We have changed the manufacturing process, and introduced the most rigorous heavy metal testing for both milk and the finished products in the industry. The unfortunate events in 2022 made NeoKare the most safety conscious company. Our products exceed the toughest EU regulation for heavy metal content.
NeoKare produces two categories of products based on 100% UK donated human milk. We process and package these in our state of the art facilities in Redditch, UK. During processing there is nothing added to the human milk. No preservatives, no vegetable or seed oils, no industrially produced food components. Just 100% human milk.
1. Human Milk Fortifier HM18. This product is enriched for the protein and HMO content of donor milk. HM18 is a dry powder that is added to the mother’s own milk or donor human milk. This fortification will help premature babies, particularly those born before 32 weeks or below 1500 grams, to grow and develop well. HM18 is classed as ‘specialist food for medical purposes’, will need to be prescribed by a healthcare professional.
2. Some particularly unwell premature babies have problems with their heart, digestive system, or kidneys. As a result, doctors treating them will have to reduce the volume of fluid they can consume every 24 hours. The medical term for this intervention is ‘fluid restriction’. Other babies suffer from conditions, such as infections, the recovery for surgical interventions, or chronic lung disease, when their bodies will use more energy in 24 hours than an otherwise healthy baby of the same age would. In these situations it is essential to increase the amount of calories available in the amount of food given to them. This places clinicians into a difficult position. Giving the extra calories in the form of sugar can lead to diarrhoea, making things even worse. The alternative is to add more vegetable oils, and something called medium change triglycerides. While these can meet the calorie requirements without causing diarrhoea, they lack so called essential fatty acids, that are absolutely necessary for the development of the human brain. Our human Cream fortifier provides essential fatty acids in a ratio designed by nature allowing clinicians to support these babies the safest and most efficient way possible. Again, the Cream fortifier is a ‘food for specialist medical purposes, so can only be given by prescription.
