We do not routinely culture any milk.  The AAP "Redbook" has a chapter on
breastmilk.  They say routine culturing is not necessary or cost-effective.

Nancy E. Wight MD, FAAP, IBCLC
Neonatologist
Medical Director, Lactation Services
San Diego, CA, USA

Nancy,
I'm glad that we are following the AAP guidelines for not culturing milk. In
fact the two situations I asked about are the only 2 times that I know of
that we obtained cultures in the last year. In both of these situations the
neonatologists requested the cultures because they suspected that the
mothers' milk might have been responsible for the  repeated episodes of
sepsis in the one baby and the death of overwhelming sepsis/NEC in the other
baby. Once the milk was cultured and grew out pathogens nobody seemed to know
what to do.  To the credit of our neonatologists, if someone could have told
them it was safe they would have given the milk, but we did not have the
knowledge to reassure them. So, I guess my question is should we have
continued to give the milk once we knew what was in it. Also, should we even
have cultured it or even suspected that it could have been responsible for
sepsis and NEC. Certainly the lactation staff never recommends culturing.  I
appreciate any wisdom on this.

Kathy Boggs, RN, IBCLC
Mountain View, CA

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html