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Scientists create powdered breast milk to feed vulnerable babies

Scientists create powdered breast milk to feed vulnerable babies

scientists from Mexico they transformed breast milk into a powdered food with which they feed children of inmate mothers and premature babies with critical health problems who cannot be breastfed by their own mothers.

Blanca Aguilar Uscangaa researcher at the exact sciences campus of the University of Guadalajara (western Mexico), told EFE that she worked for a decade to have breastmilk available for a long time without losing its natural nutrients.

What began as a thesis project for his doctorate in Biotechnologythen it became a human milk bank to feed the daughters and sons of inmate mothers who could not breastfeed, and, later, a process that allows that milk to be dried and pulverized.

He explained that other milk banks in hospitals in Mexico they preserve this liquid through a freezing and pasteurization process with which they lose some of their properties.

“In the process of pasteurization and freezing and then again thawing, many nutrients are lost and I thought: it is important to look for a conservation process in which the food is easier to handle and (that has) a longer shelf life,” he explained. in interview.

With the collaboration of undergraduate and doctoral students, and after several years, they found that spray drying was the most indicated both for the safety of milk and for its quality, by maintaining proteins, lipids and fats at 98% and substances such as lactoferrin, essential in the growth of babyup to 90%.

Contrary to what commercial companies do, the powder does not contain any additives, preservatives or flavorings and is the closest thing to fresh human milkAlonso Amezcua, one of the project researchers, told EFE.

“We have a 95% similarity to fresh human milk, that is, we preserve all the nutritional, microbiological and energy content and, above all, the immunological part that is giving us many benefits with these babies,” he explained.

WHITE GOLD

Breast milk is collected thanks to donations from lactating women, who are subjected to exhaustive medical and laboratory examinations to verify that both they and the milk are free of any disease.

Each particle of the 100 liters of milk that the specialists have dried is treated as “if it were gold” and managed so that it is used in its entirety, which is why they looked for a way to package and bottle it to avoid contamination, revealed the academic .

Each liter of milk becomes 980 grams of powder and each measure in the containers has 5 grams of food ready to prepare 50 milliliters of milk, adding the appropriate amount of water, like any milk formula. A newborn baby consumes daily between a liter and a liter and a half of this solution.

A HOPE

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara receives premature children and children with a critical health condition who are generally intubated and are under treatment for several weeks.

Some of them are children of mothers with some addiction who stop at this public hospital and who, due to the contamination of toxic substances, cannot breastfeed them or, on occasions, abandon them to their fate.

The hope for these babies has been powdered breast milk, which is easier to digest than a commercial formula and which strengthens their immune system faster and helps them get out of critical situations in less time, explains doctor Elisa García Morales, coordinator of the Neonatology specialty.

”If I make him tolerate food well, the child will grow and if he grows I will be able to withdraw all ventilatory support, antibiotics and go home faster. Every day that I reduce (his stay) I do not spend on what the staff requires and there is a profit that the child and the family have when they already have him at home, ”she said.

Specialists have verified that the intake of this milk has helped babies gain weight and that they have the conditions to not depend on intubation to breathe and eat.

“We have managed to reduce those stays in intensive care units by up to 50%, they are no longer intubated, they are not with all this invasive equipment that delays the baby’s recovery,” said Alonso Amezcua.

The work team has a waiting list of babies in delicate medical conditions or in vulnerable social situations that could be fed with this product, so they look for lactating mothers who want to donate, to have the milk available.

(With information from EFE)

Source: Gestion

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