As Dr. Wight stated she addressed this topic at our recent Albuquerque Breastfeeding Conference. We were interested in this controversy. The topic:"Breastfeeding the Premature: Fortifiers Needed or Not". Her presentation was excellent and very well referenced! She is very supportive of breastfeeding  the premature infant. But research validates that very low birth rate infants need supplementation of protein, calcium and phosphorus. This doesn't mean all preterms, just very low birth rate. Milk of mothers of preterm infants does have more protein, but that changes rapidly over the first two weeks changing to term milk.  One idea that she presented that made sense to me was that breastmilk by nature is designed to feed a term infant. I don't know if nature could predict that we would be saving 50% of babies weighing less than 500 grams!  And in these instances breastmilk helps saves these little lives, but it may need some help.
Carol L'Esperance RN, MSN, IBCLC

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