I'd want to know first off were these babies only receiving plain breastmilk? Were there any additives being added to the milk at all? It seems that breastmilk is being blamed when in fact in many cases it's the caloric additives that may be the culprit. Breastmilk with additives is a horse of another color yet sometimes I find that no one has thought of that, they automatically say it's the "breastmilk".  Some babies do not tolerate additives or the increased osmolarity. How "clean" are the additives mixed, how/where are they mixed with the breastmilk?

In our NICU recently we had two babies in isolettes across from each other. They were the same gestational age and approximately the same weight. One baby received breastmilk and the other formula. Both babies had NEC, the breastmilk baby had medical NEC, no surgery just bowel rest and antibiotics. The formula baby had surgical NEC, went to the OR for an ostomy and died a few days later.

Our mothers are taught clean technique for pumping, they clean their pump kits in the breastfeeding rooms and store the kits at the baby"s bedside for hospital use and we do not sterilize the kits in the hospital. Moms are given Capitol Vials for milk storage.

Lisa Enger RN BSN IBCLC
Boston, MA

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

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]