Fortified milk

Human milk is the ideal food for human babies, with exactly the right amount of nutrients and energy for healthy growth and development. Often the value of mother’s milk is doubted and is thought to need fortifying. This is then often done by adding one or more scoops of powdered infant formula. This is a dangerous practice, because the still developing kidneys can’t yet process this mineral load, with disease as possible result. Children with restricted growth benefit more from optimisation of breastfeeding (more and better). For very small premature babies it may be true that they need more nutrients than the milk of their mothers can provide at that stage. Special mixtures of minerals and proteins (HMF: human milk fortifier) are used to supply with those, but it means they will get bovine milk based nutrition. This will increase their risk for health damage according to the research done by Chan and by Oval et al. Especially added iron prompted an increase of bacterial and fungal growth in the intestines. In another study Chan et al however found that HMF based on human milk did not lead to the negative consequences of bovine milk based HMF.
Chan GM: Effects of Powdered Human Milk Fortifiers on the Antibacterial Actions of Human Milk. Journal of Perinatology (2003) 23, 620–623
Oval F, Ciftci IH, Cetinkaya Z, Bukulmez A: Effects of human milk fortifier on the antimicrobial properties of human milk. Journal of Perinatology (2006) 26, 761–763.
Chan GM, Lee ML, Rechtman DJ: Effects of a Human Milk-Derived Human Milk Fortifier on the Antibacterial Actions of Human Milk. Breastfeeding Medicine. December 2007, 2(4): 205-208.