Oropharyngeal Administration of Colostrum to Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborns

Colostrum is rich in cytokines and other immune agents that may provide immunomodulatory protection against nosocomial infection in extremely premature infants. However, most of them could not proceed enteral feedings due to clinical instability in the first few days. Recent studies supports oropharyngeal administration as a potentially safe and effective delivery method for immunologic benefits and only small amount of colostrum could be administrated for immune therapy for extremely premature babies. The purpose of this study is to determine the beneficial effects of oropharyngeal administration of colostrum for immunologic aspects in extremely low gestational age infants and evaluated the safety of this method to extremely premature infants in the first few days of life.

Inclusion Criteria:

• premature infant with a gestational age less than 28 weeks born at Seoul National University Hospital and admit to the Seoul National University Children's Hospital NICU immediately after birth
• parents of the infant signed to the informed consent form with voluntary agreement

Exclusion Criteria:

• infants with major congenital anomalies or chromosomal syndromes
• infants of mothers not willing to provide colostrum in the first week of life
• infants of mothers with known infectious diseases that may be transmitted through the breast milk such as HIV, hepatitis C or active TB