Evidence Hub

Fracture and fortified breast milk in an extremely preterm infant

Sharp MJ, Simmer K

Journal of paediatrics and child health, 2003

Abstract

Metabolic bone disease (MBD) in the newborn predominantly affects preterm infants. The risk of MBD is inversely proportional to gestational age and birthweight, and directly related to postnatal complications. Poor bone mineralization has been shown in 55% of infants born at less than 1000 g. Optimal nutrition for very preterm infants is thought to be mother's own milk but supplementation is required to meet dietary requirements. However, there is insufficient evidence to determine that supplementation of human milk with commercial fortifiers has an effect on bone mineral content. We report a case of severe MBD with fractures in an extremely preterm infant who was fed with fortified mother's milk.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a case report, done in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free