Hi all!

I received a call this morning from a mom who I had helped immediatly
postpartum 4 months ago.  She is still nursing and everything is going well
except that the baby did have a mild case of RSV (I believe that translates
roughly to Respiratory Syncocal Virus).

She was calling about a friend who was given a relative's baby 3 months ago.
Baby was abandoned at birth by its mother and never fed human milk.  It
seems that this baby now has a rather severe case of RSV.  In the hospital
the other night one of the physicians asked if the baby had ever been
breastfed.  When told no, the Dr. lamented that the baby probably would not
have been as sick if he had ever been breastfed.  The mom who was nursing
wanted to know if it would be ok if she gave some of her milk to this sick
baby so that he could recover faster.

I told her if she did do this, first, she should not put the baby to her
breast, she should pump her milk so that the sick baby could not infect her
or her baby.  Next, she would need to be tested for communicable diseases
including HIV, CMV, & Hepatitis.  Also, she needed to be healthy, no illness
or disease and taking no medication.  I then referred her to a milk bank in
the next state for additional information.

Two questions: 1) Did I miss anything on the list of cautions?  2) If the
milk were to be pasteurized to reduce the risk of contamination, would that
reduce the antiviral properties of the milk?


Linda Pohl, IBCLC
Phoenix, Arizona USA
[log in to unmask]