S.6 E.3 Dr. Elliott: Nutrition In The NICU Is More Than Just Food For The Smallest Babies, It Is Medicine

Today I am joined by Dr. Melinda Elliott. Dr. Elliott’s path to neonatology began in childhood. Even as a young girl, she knew she wanted to be a “baby doctor,” and that early calling guided her through medical school and specialized training in neonatal-perinatal medicine. She earned her medical degree from West Virginia University School of Medicine and completed her pediatrics residency — serving as chief resident — and neonatal fellowship at the University of Florida.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Elliott practiced clinical neonatology in the NICU, dedicating her career to the care of vulnerable, premature infants and supporting families during some of their most difficult moments. A pivotal experience came after caring for a very premature infant who developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a life-threatening intestinal disease. Losing that patient profoundly impacted her and strengthened her resolve to find safer nutritional options for fragile babies.

Her clinical experiences led her to research the benefits of an Exclusive Human Milk Diet (EHMD) for extremely low birth weight infants, as well as breastfeeding practices among mothers of very low birth weight babies. As she studied and implemented 100% breastmilk-based fortifiers — made entirely from donor human milk rather than cow milk — in her NICU she saw meaningful improvements in outcomes. Inspired by both the science and the clinical results, she published her findings and ultimately joined Prolacta Bioscience. Today, as Chief Medical Officer, she serves as the voice of the patient, working to expand access to 100% human milk-based nutrition and improve outcomes for premature and critically ill newborns worldwide.

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