I got a call from the hospital last night regarding a 3.5 month old infant
who is on peds with RSV and diarrhea.  The mom's milk had been cultured, I
suppose because of the diarrhea, and grew a lactose fermenter from one side
and a non-lactose fermenter from the other side. (She double pumped and each
side was cultured separately.)  The baby was a thirty-week preemie, who was
in NICU for 6 weeks. During the time she was in NICU, baby had normal seedy
yellow stools, but shortly after she came home, she developed mucousy, green
stools, which have continued ever since.

Mom has since returned to work as a nurse in adult ICU, working only on
weekends. I'm not sure whether the diarrhea preceded or followed the return
to work.  She has a freezer full of milk from when the baby was in NICU.  She
pumps at work with a double set-up and a Lactina, but she has been freezing
what she pumps and having the babysitter feed the frozen milk in the order it
was collected. Mom says she washes her hands before pumping at work but can't
change her clothes, of course.  The baby feeds at breast when mom is home.

Now, this woman was told by an LC (don't know her credentials, if any) at the
hospital where she delivered that she should not boil her pump kit at all,
that the bottles could go into the dishwasher but not the flanges, which she
has been washing by hand. (She does take the yellow valves and rubber seals
off while washing.)  So she has *never* steriziled the kit, not even when the
baby was in NICU.  Maybe that's why the milk grew out stuff, and, if the pump
is the source of the bacteria, probably at least some of the frozen milk is
contaminated.  Now, there are several issues here, of course, but what I'd
like to know is whether this mom, if she wants, could sterilize/pasteurize
her frozen milk as if she were processing formula.  She's really distressed
at the thought of disposing of all the milk.

Judy Dunlap, RNC, IBCLC