In many neonatal units, nurses use polysterene foam cups full of hot tap water to warm up expressed breast milk for feeding. This low-tech method of warming creates many problems. The milk can become too warm, but more often remains too cold because we are too busy to rewarm the water. This method is not ideal for frozen milk. Not infrequently, we knock over cups of water at the bedside. And let us not forget that we are filling our landfills with styrofoam.
Leave it to a nurse to come up with a better solution. The Penguin Nutritional WarmerTM (Neonatal Product Group, Overland Park, Kansas) is a unit of 4 receptacles, or wells, that hold sterile warming bags. Each well is individually controlled on separate LED key pads, allowing 1 or more to be used at a time, gently warming the milk to precise body temperature. The Penguin gently vibrates the milk, mixing milk, milk fat, and proteins, eliminating hot spots in the bottle for a controlled, even temperature. A soft alarm sounds and an LED displays the temperature and elapsed heating time when the milk reaches body temperature. The Penguin can be used for breast milk, formula, or any other liquid. It will hold the temperature for 30 minutes, so if the baby falls back to sleep or the feeding is delayed for some reason, the feeding remains warm.
The theory behind precise warming of breast milk, currently under study, is that if milk is too cold, it will constrict the blood vessels of the gut, restricting blood flow and oxygen delivery. The Penguin warmer is also available in a 1-unit version. For more information, visit http://www.neonatalproductgroup.com/Home/tabid/180/Default.aspx.