Human milk bank and personalized nutrition in the NICU: a narrative review

The number of infants born preterm including extremely premature babies is rising worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, which challenge neonatologists and milk banks for the provision of the most adequate nutrition for successful infant’s growth and development. The benefits of mother’s own milk (MOM) have been extensively recognized, but the use of donor milk (DM) is a commonly routine practice in preterm neonates admitted to the NICU. Pasteurized mature milk from milk banks is not the same composition than the mother’s colostrum and premature milk, the characteristics of which protect the infant from the risk for necrotizing enterocolitis, late-onset sepsis, and other comorbidities associated with prematurity. The development of a personalized nutrition unit (PNU) allows to obtain DM from mothers who have their infants admitted to the NICU and produce an excess of milk, a practice that matches MOM by gestational age and the stage of lactation, ensuring an adequate composition of DM to target the nutritional requirements of premature infants. Conclusion: This narrative review presents salient data of our current knowledge and concerns regarding milk feeding of preterm infants in the NICU, with special emphasis on personalized DM as a result of establishing a PNU.