Linda asks,
***************************************************

A mom  had a question about storing =
milk and she told her that she could pump  directly into a container of =
refrigerated milk.  I gasped (to  myself) and asked her after class where =
she had heard this information  and she said it was taught in her =
lactation management course.  I  had always believed that milk should be =
chilled before adding to another  container so that you don't change the =
temperature of the previously  stored milk and encourage bacterial   =
growth.



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

Do we have any evidence that pumping directly into refrigerated milk is
going to encourage bacterial growth?  Or is this theoretical?  Those  of us in
lactation do an awful lot of things that are theoretical, not evidence  based
(golly, if we only did evidence based, we'd not be doing much of  anything), but
are not necessarily based on common sense.

This is freshly expressed milk from the same mother, pumped into a bottle  of
cooled milk in the refrigerator (from the same mother).  In some cases,
refrigerated milk has a higher bacterial content than freshly expressed  milk.
(Evidence based)  And the bacterial content of the milk will  change over time,
even in the refrigerator.   The question really is  -- if we do this, not will
it change the bacterial content, but WILL IT HURT THE  BABY?  Have we
considered that the fresh macrophages in the newly expressed  milk may actually engulf
and destroy some of the bacteria in the refrigerated  milk????  We don't
know, because the research hasn't been done.  But  doesn't that make as much (or
more) sense as the warmish milk encouraging  bacterial growth in the cooled
milk (which grows bacteria on its own....without  any encouragement....)

Just food for thought....

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC
Wheaton  IL
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com

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