Background: Human milk is the ideal source of nutrition for newborns. Creamatocrit is a simple, cost-effective, and reliable technique to estimate its caloric content, particularly useful in hospital human milk banks.
Objective: To evaluate the energy content of donated human milk using creamatocrit at the Human Milk Bank of Hospital General Dr. Jose Maria Rodriguez, and to assess the impact of an individualized nutritional counseling program on the caloric quality of milk from lactating mothers.
Methods: Observational, retrospective, analytical, cross-sectional study. A total of 200 donated frozen milk samples were analyzed from May to August 2024 (50 samples/month, random selection). Additionally, a longitudinal follow-up was conducted on 20 lactating mothers with four serial creamatocrit measurements before and after individualized nutritional counseling sessions.
Results: Caloric content of the milk bank ranged from 480 to 760 kcal/L, with a mean of 576 +/- 38.9 kcal/L, below the 670 kcal/L reference value for mature human milk. No correlation was found between gestational age and caloric content. In the counseling program, initial creamatocrit was 576.5 +/- 83.3 kcal/L, increasing to 827.4 +/- 88.0 kcal/L at the end of follow-up (+43.5%, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Creamatocrit is a practical and accessible method for the nutritional classification of donated milk. Implementation of nutritional counseling programs significantly improves the caloric quality of breast milk, potentially contributing to better neonatal outcomes.
Keywords : creamatocrit; human milk; milk bank; caloric content; preterm infant; nutritional counseling
Citation: Perla Karina García-May & Alvarado Zuñiga (2026). Calorie Content of Breast Milk: Response to a Weekly Strategy for Breastfeeding Mothers. G Women’s Health Car, 2026; 7(1):1-6.
DOI : https://doi.org/10.47485/2766-5879.1024