Project THRIVE

Transforming health and resilience via individualized nutrition in very preterm infants for extrauterine growth and development

Project THRIVE

Transforming health and resilience via individualized nutrition in very preterm infants for extrauterine growth and development

Premature baby in an incubator.

Nutrition for your tiny newborn as individualized as a fingerprint

In nature, mother’s own milk evolves over time to meet the growing baby’s needs. Project THRIVE does nature one better, adding new innovations to optimize nutrition for the tiniest newborns admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s National Hospital. Already, we use tried-and-true methods to boost macronutrients – like protein, carbs and fat – in human milk that our NICU babies receive. Project THRIVE does that in a more personalized way, using what we learn about variable human milk content to tailor milk in a way that maximizes baby’s growth (weight, length and head circumference) and supports their developing brain to improve how they  grow, learn and thrive.

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Purpose

Project THRIVE was designed in close collaboration with dietitians, nurse educators and lactation specialists who work in the award-winning Children’s National NICU. The study aims to compare the efficacy of individualized (adjustable or targeted) fortification versus standard fortification with the goal of improving growth and neurodevelopment in preterm infants born ≤32 weeks’ gestational age. Project THRIVE has three study arms, and everyone enrolled in the study will have their human milk analyzed. The standardized arm (control) uses the current nutritional practices for preterm newborns. The adjustable arm uses lab markers of protein metabolism derived from blood samples to estimate nutritional requirements and leverages protein supplementation to improve newborns’ growth. The third arm (targeted) uses sophisticated machines to analyze human milk every two weeks for its energy and macronutrient levels and uses supplementation to shore up lower-than-optimal levels of fat.

  • Infants whose postnatal age is 4 weeks at time of enrollment
  • Babies whose birth gestational age (GA) is ≤32 weeks
  • Moms who are >18 years old
  • If moms plan to supply human milk to their newborn, they also will need to consent to use donor human milk, as needed, to supplement their own supply

Meet the thrive team