Perhaps you have been told by your neonatologist or local ophthalmologist that giving preterm babies human breastmilk helps prevent the development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)? What is the evidence underlying that hypothesis? This week, Zhou et al. (doi/10.1542/peds.2015-2372) share the results of a meta-analysis summarizing the outcomes of 5 systematically identified studies involving more than 2000 preterm infants who were either fed human milk or formula or both. Retrospective longitudinal cohorts (but not prospective) were used in these studies that did reflect subgroup heterogeneity as a reported limitation. As a result of the meta-analysis, you will be happy to hear that human milk appears to make a difference in protecting infants from developing ROP—but rather than reveal all the findings reported, eyeball this review article for yourself and then share the findings with mothers of preterm infants so they can further recognize yet another benefit to breastfeeding,
