Dear Lactnetters,
        I had a call from the mother of a very tiny (1 lb 11 oz) preemie who is
being treated with ampicillin for mastitis. Her milk is stringy and yellow
looking.  The nicu nurses told her to throw the milk away, so she called
me. I did a search of the archives on "stringy milk", but I still have a
question: Since there is some thought that part of the process of "string"
formation may come from the presence of bacteria, and since this baby is so
delicate and tiny, would there be a potential danger in using this milk? At
present the mom has plenty of milk stored up, and the baby gets only about
5 cc at a time. I told her to freeze this milk separately at home and not
take it in to the hospital for now until I can get more information for
her.  With a term baby my advice would have been to continue breastfeeding,
but in her situation, is there any risk of using this milk at a later time?
Also, what about the antibiotic in such a fragile baby?
Thank you in advance!  Anne Stiller, RNC, IBCLC