Janet:
My concern in using powdered ABM to "fortify" EBM for very low birth weight
infants would be the lack of minerals delivered to the baby. The primary
reason the human milk fortifiers are given is the need for more calcium and
phosphorus (as well as calories) due to the infant's restricted volume
requirements. We have used powdered ABM to increase caloric density only
when hindmilk feeding, increased milk volumes per kilogram wt, etc. , didn't
result in sufficient weight gain. And this was on bigger infants, not
premies.
Hope this helps.
Nancy Hurst, RN, MSN
Director
Lactation Program and Mother's Own Milk Bank
Texas Children's Hospital