Effect of Milk Warming on the Very Low Birth Weight Infant

The aim of this randomized prospective quasi-experimental study is to determine if providing body temperature breast milk feedings to very low birth weight infants through use of continuous milk warmer improves feeding tolerance and weight gain compared to a standard milk warming technique.

Warming breast milk in a hot water bath just prior to feeding prior to feeding in the neonatal intensive care unit is a common practice. However, little evidence is available to support a standard warming method. This method allows inconsistent temperatures at time of feeding and progressive cooling of the milk during the feeding. No published study used a continuous warming device that delivered milk at a consistent physiological temperature throughout the feeding. The continuous warmer externally heats milk in the tubing just posterior to the feeding tube to provide body temperature milk to the infant.

A convenience sample from the Children's Hospital at OU Medical Center of 50 very low birth weight infants will be randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group for ten days. The experimental group will receive warmed feedings through the duration of the feeding through the use of the Guardian Warmer™, a continuous milk warming device. A control group will receive breast milk feedings warmed using the standard milk warming methods. Feeding tolerance and weight gain over the ten-day period will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of continuous milk warming.

Inclusion criteria

• Gestational age 28-32 weeks on full enteral feeding of breast milk

Exclusion criteria

• Mechanical ventilation
• Positive End Expiratory Pressure (PEEP)
• Total parenteral nutrition, or any congenital anomalies
• Severe to moderate respiratory disease
• Previous medical or surgical necrotizing enterocolitis.