The powdered milk produced in the Human Milk Research Laboratory (LILH) of the University of Guadalajara is characterized by being safe, without preservatives or additives, and with nutritional characteristics incomparable to commercial milk formulas.
By Blanca Rosa Aguilar Uscanga
Research Professor in Food Biotechnology, University of Guadalajara.
Mexico City, November 29 (TheConversation).- In MexicoEvery year around 200 thousand are born children premature. When they are victims of abandonment —at least 5,790 minors were minors between 2020 and 2024—, their enormous vulnerability reduces the chances of their survival. And not only because this circumstance leads them to enter Intensive Care Units, where they try to overcome important health complications. Furthermore, in these circumstances, they must get by without access to feeding con leche maternalso important for your recovery.
Let us not forget that, as pointed out by World Health Organization (OMS), the lactation maternal It is the most effective strategy to prevent infant mortality and morbidity in infants.
Faced with this lack, hospitals resort to commercial milk formulas that, although presented as an option for babies to thrive, are more expensive and do not offer the same benefits in infants, delaying their recovery and making medical care more expensive.
The priority of a laboratory: ensuring quality and safe food
Pasteurized Human Milk Banks (BLH), intended to ensure the right of newborns to safe and timely feeding, are unable to cover the feeding needs of the network of hospitals and health centers in Mexico. For this reason, it is essential to look for other alternatives for the conservation and disposal of human milk to achieve quality nutrition.
The Human Milk Research Laboratory (LILH), based at the University Center of Exact Sciences and Engineering (CUCEI) of the University of Guadalajara, was created to find a solution to this problem. Its objective is to ensure the right of abandoned babies or babies without access to breastfeeding to be fed exclusively with human milk, as established by the WHO and UNICEF.
The powdered milk they produce, whose processing and distribution has a long shelf life, is characterized by being safe, without preservatives or additives, and with nutritional and biological characteristics incomparable to commercial dairy formulas. All this in strict compliance with current national and international regulations.
As it is a dehydrated product that does not require a cold chain, it can be stored in small spaces and transported without problem to any part of Mexico, which provides many advantages, both from a socioeconomic and environmental point of view.
Blanca Aguilar Uscanga, researcher at the @udegcuceiwas recognized with the international award “For Women in Science” for her innovative work in the development of human milk powder, which improves the nutrition of vulnerable babies. 🍼🔬
Congratulations! Is #OrgulloUdeG.… pic.twitter.com/bHnQORFQRQ
— University of Guadalajara (@udg_oficial) November 7, 2025
Greater institutional involvement to save more lives
In order for this milk to feed the most vulnerable children, the LILH donated the product to the “Fray Antonio Alcalde” Civil Hospital in Guadalajara. Babies with multiple complications are frequently admitted there: respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), congenital syphilis, pneumonia, hepatosplenomegaly, microcephaly, patent ductus arteriosus, bacterial sepsis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in premature babies with exposure to toxic substances during their mothers’ pregnancy, etc.
On the other hand, thanks to its qualities, powdered human milk is used to feed neonates with an allergy to cow’s milk protein (CMPA), intolerance to commercial milk formula or diseases that affect food absorption, such as Bartter syndrome. In all these clinical cases, a prompt recovery of the children is achieved, reducing their time in the hospital and avoiding the consumption of commercial milk formulas.
As evidenced by the results, the LILH offers hospitals an effective and safe alternative for feeding with human milk powder and the rapid recovery of the neonatal infant population.
However, the advancement of this initiative in a country like Mexico requires the collaboration of key government institutions, such as the Ministry of Health and the National System for the Comprehensive Development of the Family (DIF). In addition to its firm commitment to subsidize the costs of transforming human milk into powder, its support is essential to be able to establish networks with Pasteurized Human Milk Banks and achieve unification of the milk conservation process and its transformation into powder.
Only in this way can the lives of the most vulnerable babies in the country be saved.