Researchers have found that feeding premature babies breast milk could reduce heart damage caused by an early birth. Babies born before full-term – 37 weeks – are thought to have weaker hearts due to smaller chambers that help pump the blood.
But giving premature babies
Researchers have found that feeding premature babies breast milk could reduce heart damage caused by an early birth. Babies born before full-term – 37 weeks – are thought to have weaker hearts due to smaller chambers that help pump the blood.
But giving premature babies breast milk, instead of formula, could alleviate the problem, a review of evidence suggests. The researchers believe breast milk can help regulate hormones and growth factors and strengthen the infant’s immune system, reducing inflammation.
Premature babies are more likely to develop cardiovascular diseases as adults than their full term peers.
One of the long-term health complications young adults born prematurely may have is a unique heart characteristic.
These can include smaller heart chambers, relatively higher blood pressure and a disproportionate increase in muscle mass in the heart. Lead author Professor Afif El-Khuffash, a paediatrician at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, said:
“It is becoming increasingly clear premature birth results in long term adverse cardiovascular effects with important clinical consequences. There is a distinct lack of preventative and therapeutic interventions available to alleviate those effects.”
His international team including colleagues at the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School wrote their review of evidence in the journal Pediatric Research.
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