>Hi All,  I thought I could tell you about the primary use of a 
>creamatocrit in our pediatric hospital.  I know that most of you 
>would not every need to use a creamatocrit and it is very helpful in 
>this situation.  We occasionally have patients that develop 
>chylothorax which is a accumulation of the lymph drainage between 
>the chest wall and the lung.  This may be seen in patients that have 
>had chest surgery and requires a chest tube to drain the chyle from 
>the chest.  These patients need to have fat free oral nutrition ( 
>they can have fat in the form of medium chain triglycerides). 
>Breastmilk has a lot of long chain triglycerides but can be used if 
>the fat is removed from the milk.  The creamatocrit is a way of 
>testing the milk to provide milk that is safe for these patients. 
>This has been discussed before in Lactnet.  Sincerely, Rachel Wahl 
>RN IBCLC


Thank you, Rachel, that's a good reminder.

This is *not* assessing the milk against a standard 'quality', 
however.  It's checking that the 'lactoengineering' needed for this 
very specialised group of patients has been effective.

I am not questioning that at all.

Thanks, too, to Rachel Myr, who gave a detailed response reflecting 
my own feelings about the real dangers of measuring  the 'quality' of 
milk with a creamatocrit.

I am still waiting for answers to my questions from my post on Friday :)

Kathy Eng says she would only do creamatocrits as a last resort - I 
agree, Kathy, that the most likely explanation for 'not enough milk' 
or apparent 'quality issues' with milk is always the plain ol' 
vanilla explanation that the baby is not feeding enough/effectively 
enough and that has to be ruled right out of the picture as a first 
step. So what would you be looking for with the last resort of the 
creamatocrit and how would you overcome the risks of this 'snapshot' 
of a sample telling you the 'wrong' thing? And to what standard are 
you comparing the snapshot?

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
Mail all commands to [log in to unmask]
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask])
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask])
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]