Mothers' milk feedings in the neonatal intensive care unit: accuracy of the creamatocrit technique.
OBJECTIVE
To establish the accuracy of the creamatocrit (CRCT) for estimating lipid and calories in a heterogeneous sample of own mothers' milk (OMM) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), using a hematocrit reader, rather than fine vernier calipers.


METHODS
In this blinded study, CRCT techniques were performed on 32 fresh OMM samples (7 foremilk, 12 hindmilk, 13 composite milk) that were also analyzed for total lipid and caloric concentration.


RESULTS
Mean lipid and caloric concentrations for the OMM samples were 50.87 g/l (28.3-86.5) and 703.96 kcal/l (477.2-1183.6), respectively. Results revealed a stronger linear relationship between CRCT and total lipid (r=0.94; p<0.001) than between CRCT and caloric density (r=0.76; p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The CRCT, using a hematocrit reader, is an accurate, inexpensive, and useful technique for estimating the lipid and caloric concentration of individual OMM samples in the NICU. The variability in lipid and calories in these 32 OMM samples underscores the utility of this technique.
Meier
Paula P
PP
Rush Children's Hospital, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Engstrom
Janet L
JL
Murtaugh
Maureen A
MA
Vasan
Usha
U
Meier
Werner A
WA
Schanler
Richard J
RJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002149:Energy Intake; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D008055:Lipids / Q000032:analysis; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry*; D009753:Nutritive Value; D011247:Pregnancy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
D008055:Lipids