The Department of Health shall create an evidence-based, educational pamphlet on the nutritional needs of preterm infants. By January 1, 2027, the department shall make the pamphlet available electronically to hospitals licensed under chapter 395 to provide neonatal intensive care services. Such hospitals may provide the pamphlet to parents and guardians of infants receiving care in a neonatal intensive care unit. The pamphlet must include, but need not be limited to, information on preterm infants relating to all of the following:(1) The specific nutritional needs of preterm infants;
(2) The health risks associated with nutritional deficits and the potential need for nutritional supplementation;
(3) Different nutritional sources for infants, including maternal breast milk, pasteurized human donor milk, infant formula, human-milk-derived fortifiers, and bovine-milk-derived fortifiers, and the recommended uses for each type of nutritional source;
(4) The importance of maternal breast milk for meeting the nutritional and developmental needs of infants, and the alternative of pasteurized human donor milk if maternal breast milk is not available;
(5) The importance of having a physician discuss with family members the risks and benefits of all nutritional sources available, based on the preterm infant’s individual situation; and
(6) Necrotizing enterocolitis, the risk factors for necrotizing enterocolitis, and the potential for a human-milk-based diet, including maternal and pasteurized donor breast milk, to reduce the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis.
