Early diet in preterm babies and later intelligence quotient

BMJ 1999;318:1625 ( 12 June )

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Early diet in preterm babies and later intelligence quotient

Surely study showed that breast milk is feed of choice for premature babies

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Surely study showed that breast milk is feed of choice for premature babies

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Lucas et al's paper on early diet in preterm babies and their later intelligence quotient (IQ)¹ sparked intensemedia interest: "Premature babies need enriched diets," said theBBC.² The authors didn't point out any of the known advantagesof breast milk for prematurebabies.

The paper compared babies who received only infant formula with babies who received breast milk and infant formula. Babiesreceived either standard term formula or preterm formula. Themain outcome, IQ at age 7-8, showed no advantage for preterm formula.Subgroup analyses looked at results for boys and girls. Few detailswere given about how successful the randomisation was in termsof the sex of the baby in relation to weight. Is it then validto draw separate conclusions for boys andgirls?

We suggest that the following conclusion would be more accurate: "Breast milk continues to be the feed of choice for prematurebabies. . . . [Full text of this article]

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Randomised trial of early diet in preterm babies and later intelligence quotient: A Lucas, R Morley, and T J Cole
BMJ 1998 317: 1481-1487. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]