Does breast milk help premature babies? Sick Kids wants to know
Posted November 9, 2016 6:41 am.
Last Updated November 9, 2016 6:46 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Researchers from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children are looking at whether donated breast milk helps premature babies.
They randomly put 363 preterm infants with very low birth weight into two groups, giving them either supplementary formula or donor milk.
They wanted to see how babies performed on a battery of cognitive exams, such as motor development.
They found that at 18 months, neither group showed a difference in cognitive test scores.
The researchers plan to follow these babies up to five years.
The research is in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
