Hello Netters,

Being involved for many years with the bili beds and lecturing all over on
phototherapy, I have filed away many articles.  A few that  I use are: "
Blue Light, Green Light, White Light, More light: Treatment of Neonatal
Jaundice" by John Ennever, Ph.D, MD, and "BiliBlanket Phototherapy System
Versus Conventional Phototherapy:  A Randomised Controlled Trial" by
Costello, Nyikal, Yu, "Ohmeda Biliblanket vs Wallaby Phototherapy System
for the Reduction of Bilirubin Livels in the Home Care Setting" by Phillip
George, MD (presented to Southern Society for Pediatric Research), "A
Clinical Trial of Fiberoptic Phototherapy vs Conventional Phototherapy", by
Holtrop, MD, Madison, MSN, Jeffrey Maisels, MB, BCh, and "Bright Light is
The Right Light:  Multicenter Trial of A Novel Phototherapy Device", by
Ennever, Manoel de Carvalho, Loes, Gerdes, Polin and "A  Conrolled Trial of
High-Intensit Double-Surface Phototherapy on a Fluid Bed Versus
Conventional Phototherapy in Neonatal Jaundice" by Garg, Prasad, Hifzi
(Pediatrics Vol. 95 No. 6, June1995), and "Double Phototherapy with High
Irradiance Compared with Standard Phototherapy" by Kang, Shankaran, State. 

First to clear up- the number for Wallaby given early (800) 544-3997 is
incorrect.  Healthdyne bought out Wallaby and the info # is now (800)
421-8754 and ask for education if you want articles.  The normal irradiance
levels at 425-475 (blue light in the rainbow spectrum)  for standard
phototherapy is 8-12 microwatts/cm2/nm.  The Wallaby has a Stage I with
irradiance levels at 16-24 and Stage II irradiance levels at 8-14...... The
Ohmeda biliblanket  is 35-40....... irradiance levels.  ALL biliblankets
have the ultraviolet (<400nm spectrum) and red and infrared irradiation
(>550) filtered out so babies will not get hot, nor sunburned.  Just to
mention that  Medela now has a bilibed  and bilicombi therapy blanket with
irradiance levels of approximately 40-60......   The baby actually lies on
the bed, no need for eye covers.  Any questions , you can e-mail me.  I
know, I know, I know that I am suppose to be learning how to say no or I
can not do that insead of "call me anytime". 

I want to dance always, to be good and not evil, and when it is all over
not to have the feeling  that I might have done better.  by Ruth St. Denis 

Pat Bull, RN, IBCLC
The Breastfeeding Connection/Medela
Naperville, IL- it hit 60's and doves have been playing in the driveway
today.

In regards to random testing of milk, the Milk Bank Recommendations are: 
"Rouine bacteriological screening of a mother's own milk is unnecessary in
most circumstances.  Their rationale is "Mothers should never be made to
feel that hteir milk is dirty.  Rountime sdreening programs often preclude
feeding fresh breast milk to an infant.  Frequently it takes longer thatn
48 hours to get laboratory culture restults.  and In one large study,
routine screeing was ineffective in limiting the bacterial content forless
prevalent and potentially pathogenic organisms.  Furthermore, those infants
receiving milk that contained these organisms appeared to suffer no ill
effects.