Salmonella is an intestinal bacterial infection, passed on by contaminated
food, water(possibly restaurant workers not washing hands that are carriers)
found in chickens(stool) which is why the no raw egg deal. It's not a
particularly strong bacteria so good hygiene and proper cooking/storage temp
usually help. Causes severe diarrhea-dehydration could follow, so the younger
child could be more at risk since children can dehydrate very quickly. I
remember the pet turtle thing-did anyone else ever buy one of those when a
kid at the 5 and dime store and take it home in a paper carton with a wire
handle, like Chinese food takeout comes in? Then when I was a teen they
banned them because of the Salmonella thing, suggested vigorous disinfection
of the bowl with bleach, etc-I magine how much could grow in that half inch
of lukewarm water-also raw hamburger was a food suggested to give the
turtles..
We stopped getting them at the pet store where I worked around that time.
Lizardy pets don't stay as wet, but sometimes do soak in their water dishes.
I  don't know if it is a normal bacteria for the reptiles to have or just
something they CAN have that doesn't make them sick like it does us!! It's
like "food poisoning"-different bacteria can cause it.
It would not be airborne, you would have to ingest the bacteria-putting
contaminated hands in mouth or eating food in which it is present-knowing all
this and I still want to eat raw cookie/cake batter!!?!  A nursing mom(same
as the Shigella discussed recently) would not pass it thru milk,  if she were
septic with it present in her blood stream, maybe? But she would be very ill
if that were the case. I wish I knew more about which animals carry it, guess
we need a veterinarian on this list!!
I believe certain antibiotics are used-my microbiology is rusty as I haven't
currently done IDs and sensitivities at work, just mostly blood bank. They
even changed a lot of the names of the little creatures, so I would need to
retrain to catch up! it was a part of my profession that I always had a love
for!!
Breastfeeding would help a sick child have an easier time, stay better
hydrated, possibly help fight off the infection if mom had antibodies or
developed them at the breast for the babe.
I'll post to my med tech list to see f someone can shed a light on the likely
animals which can cause /carry Salmonella.
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The methods used at a hosp lab would likely be unable to use breastmilk as a
sample, because of the opacity-usually urine is used and it is a clear
fluid-most chem tests are related to light transmittance. The testing needed
to do a fluid like milk would likely be very expensive. Even the urine
screens are that, only a screen, saying detected, or not, and if confirmation
is wanted, doc must order the specific drug and it is sent out to a reference
lab.  Sometimes we'll do a urine screen on mom or baby, tho. That can take an
hour not counting reruns for positives if ordered as stats. I personally ran
all babies as stats-think it's important, but the protocol is to run routines
as a batch or along with a stat if one comes in. They might run one a mom who
admittedly has taken drugs, or by symptoms of mom or baby, or if her med
records have indicated a need for that type of testing in the past, or if the
doc orders it, we run it.
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Dear Bernadette,
I had a similar problem with recurrent yeast-can get it cyclically, each
month sometimes, I think because of hormone changes thru my cycle! It is a
real pain! I tried the once only pill-Diflucan, (was not nursing with this),
and it seems to help a lot better than the topical meds, tho I did have good
luck with Vagistat(prescription) used while nursing, before the Diflucan. The
Vagistat is very thick and sticky like an ointment rather than a cream so it
stayed in place much better, I think it's one reason why it worked better.
Also a one time only application, but for a very persistent one, the doc had
me use it once a week for 3 weeks-it did the trick. I had a C the last baby,
and the heavy duty antibiotic dose post op gave me a whopper of a yeas inf,
including a rash on the front of my legs-peeling, the whole bit-doc said,
"It's prob a yeast infection from the antibiotics we gave you"
                                                Sincerely,
                                       Georgeanne Mattise, LLLL, MT, mostly
MOM