Tyler’s story

On February 4, 2007, our son Tyler was born at 2 lbs. 1 ounce. The three days prior to that, Tyler’s mother Julie had to be admitted to the hospital for complications known as Preeclampsia.

A condition which is rapidly progressive characterized by high blood pressure and the presence of protein in the urine. On the fourth day, Julie was retaining so much fluid that her lungs began accumulating fluid as well and the doctors decided to do an emergency C-section. Julie was only 27 weeks pregnant.

When Tyler was delivered, he wasn’t able to breathe on his own and he was the smallest human I’d had ever seen. Julie had to stay in bed 24 hours after the C-section and didn’t first see Tyler until the next day. While sitting in the NICU, next to Tyler’s little incubator, we were told he wouldn’t be able to feed right away.

We were told it would be a couple of days until he got any breast milk at all, and he would only get a drop at first. The nurses and specialists explained how important that first drop is and that it would increase in volume over time. Julie would be released 6 days after Tyler was born and she was put on a slew of medications as well as self injected shots.

We feared this would interfere with breast feeding which we knew was so important for Tyler, and we were relieved when we were told that it wouldn’t. Julie was already prepared not to take the medication for the sake of being able to breastfeed Tyler.

Julie would pump breast milk on the scheduled times she was supposed to. The NICU gave us the containers, labels, different colored stickers, the works; all of this so her breast milk could be frozen and given at a later time. We knew how important Julie’s precious milk was to Tyler’s health and development so we continually carried the sacred cargo to the hospital. Tyler clearly benefited from the breast milk which also helped to strengthen his immune system. Once continuously eating breast milk, the lactation specialist advised us that a human milk fortifier needed to be introduced.

She informed us of Prolact+ H2MF®, the only 100% human milk derived fortifier so Tyler could remain on an all human milk diet, and she gave us information about it. We took the information home, fully researched it, and it made perfect sense to us to use it.

“It’s made from donated human milk, the liquid gold we were being told was so important for our premature son’s well being”.

We gave the NICU our consent to use the Prolact+ H2MF® and the nurses and specialists were ecstatic. They told us they were happy we chose it because they had seen so many positive results and were sure it would help Tyler.

Tyler left the NICU 108 days later at 8.5 pounds. Tyler is over 3 years old now and goes 100mph all day. It’s amazing when we look back at his pictures from the beginning and to witness his progression over this period of time. He truly is a blessing and a miracle, and without his human milk fortifier, love and care from everyone, we wouldn’t be where we are today.