One of the things I love about Lactnet is that people's questions make me go to the library and research -- for the first time in twenty + years.

Someone recently asked about our collective experience related to seeing higher percentages of colostrum in the milk of premie moms.  I have not yet gone to the library on this one, but I've been thinking about the question.

Since breast-milk changes in its composition as the baby grows, providing an
age-related "formula," maybe it stays highly fatty for premies since one of the
things they need most is to grow?

Annecdotally -- the bottles in our NICU freezer show a wide range of colostrum
in the milk, but I haven't checked to see if it is related to how old the baby is
in relation to its EDC.  Also annecdotally, my own expressed milk (24 years
ago) stayed highly colostral until after my son reached his due date.  He was
born at 30 weeks, 1474 grams, (which went down 90, then up), and came home
17 days after birth, a whopping 1900 grams -- that's more than an ounce a day
weight gain.  And he never had anything but mommy's own.  

Chanita, in San Francisco