Context

Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is a common and devastating disease among premature infants. Mother's own milk significantly decreases the risk of NEC; whether this benefit is due to protective factors in human milk or harmful factors in infant formula or both is unclear. Current recommendations in the USA are to provide pasteurised donor human milk (PDHM) when mother's own milk is not available.1 However, pasteurisation alters many of the immunoprotective human milk proteins. Most extremely premature infants require fortification of human milk to achieve adequate growth. While most human milk fortifiers are made from bovine milk, the studied fortifier is made from concentrated PDHM, providing the possibility of an ‘all-human’ …